Teams of players are meant to work together to find clues, and obviously, escape the room they've been locked in. All kinds of people are attracted to escape rooms, ready to take on a puzzle and even possibly enjoy a unique theme. A lot of work goes into the experience, and employees do a lot behind the scenes to ensure customers enjoy themselves.
That being said, some players prove to be too intoxicated, curious, or even too enthusiastic when they take part in a game, leading to mayhem for the escape room's employees. We got to hear about such incidents when Redditor u/nervousbeekeeper asked... "Escape room workers, what's the most absurd thing players have done?"
20. The worst kind of players
"They game was only one hour long and it was timed by us (escape room workers). There was also a clock in the player's room so they could know how much time they had left. They played for 59 minutes and when they saw they only had one minute left (they were going to lose) they said that they didn't like the game and wanted the money back and leave the place. It was stupid but our boss made us give them the money back so he wouldn't have bad reviews. Probably not the most absurd thing to do since they played for free but always wanted to express how selfish and stupid people can be sometimes."
19. Unlikely friends were made
"Had a drunk group of 4 join in with 2 sober folks they didn't know. One of the couples from the drunk group hit on me (both husband and wife), and then the drunk group ended up bonding with the sober group and going out for consolation drinks (believe it or not, they didn't escape)."
18. This poorly designed escape room
Giphy"I went to an escape room. Once. Staff told us not to move furniture or lift anything. Then they switched off the lights. We spent a miserable hour or so. Barely made it past the first room using the light from a watch before they let us out. Turns out the flashlight was under the mattress that we weren't allowed to lift in the first room. Never. Going. Back."
17. These inappropriate teens
"We had a teenage couple come in (15-ish). They had sex absolutely everywhere imaginable... Good times. Edit: there were cameras everywhere to make sure everyone is ok"
16. Check the address
"I work in London, we once had a few members of a team arrive. When quizzed on the whereabouts of the remaining members they looked surprised, they thought they were already there. Turns out the rest of the team were in another escape room down the road, getting a safety briefing for a game they didn't book. Madness."
15. This player didn't get it
"The group was split in to two, one of them started locked up in a dark prison cell with a phone (to ask for clues). Game starts, they start moving, I come back to my desk from locking the door behind me and I hear a call. Guy is telling me to call the cops because some psychopath locked them up in a cell... **** was hard to explain to him"
14. Don't just destroy things
"Went to an escape room and the last warning of the receptionist: don't touch the clock, it is not part of the game, it is just there to help set the mood and if you break it you pay for it.
There was a very nice old clock, one of those 6feet high beauties. Apparently the first thing some nutjob did when he got in the room was to knock over the clock because 'there was obviously a passageway to another room behind it' and it cost couple grand ti repair it."
13. Thief!
"A Karen tried to take things from the escape room. A book was spray painted in gold and she tried to take it. The funniest thing was that there is a camera and she didn't know that. When the owner asked did she take anything she said no. That book cost only 2 dollars."
12. That's a big accident
"Not a escape room employee but one time I accidentally pissed myself in one. I imagine the escape room employee was horrified, my friends thought it was a hilarious."
11. Brown nosers...
"I did an escape room in middle school for my friends birthday and were a bunch of 8th grade idiots so one of the workers was there with us and several of us immediately tried to be friends with her and the nephew of the guy the party was for basically became her assistant"
10. You're not really trapped, you know
"Attended a 'Saw series' themed escape room with my SO and some randoms since the room required 4-6.
We get locked in to start, chained to fixtures like the dark room scene from the movie - lights are off. As soon as the thing starts one of the randos says, 'I have a gun in case we need to shoot someone.'
I thought he was joking. We all did.
Eventually the lights turn on and he pulls out a real gun and sits it in the sink and says, 'I'm leaving the gun in the sink in case something happens to me. It's for everyone.'"
9. Hot bulbs
"I did an escape room with my family and the workers have to tell you not to lick the light bulb. This is because some guy thought if he licked the light bulb the answer would be revealed on the light bulb. The only answer he found was light bulbs are hot and can burn you."
8. Go to the bathroom before going in
"A kid I knew from school, his family owns an escape room business. The most things that happen is people trying to take things when it's clearly nailed down or nailed to the wall then he said that a little kid pissed in a bottle."
7. Printers are so unpredictable
Giphy"I did an escape room with a group of friends. At the end, you found a flash drive which was supposed to be plugged into a computer. We opened the document and there were instructions to print. We got print, and the printer gave us an 'out of ink' error. We assumed this was part of the game and started looking for a magenta cartridge. Then an employee slipped in the room, replaced the cartridge, and told us to hit print again.
Apparently it was not part of the game. They just ran out of ink."
6. I'm sure they were tempted to hand them the key
"I one had a group of drunk guys go in and they ran through their allotted hints pretty quickly. They asked for another hint and we said over the speakers that they were out of hints.
One of the guys threatened to start taking off his clothes until we gave another hint."
5. The luckiest guess
"My buddy guessed a lock's combo which gave us the final clue, but we had not found the other ones. We ending up solving the room backwards.
When the room administrator came in she had nothing else to say but 'What the **** did you guys do.'"
4. That would be the ultimate Alcatraz challenge
"Mate worked at an escape room and he told me that some guys tried to smash a hole in the wall to get out because it was an Alcatraz themed room."
3. It can't ALL be a clue
"First thing I had to learn working at an escape room: Everything, yes EVERYTHING, in the room was going to be dismantled, pulled on, or messed with in some way. Have a screwdriver in the room? Maybe there's a clue in the light switch cover. Blacklight? Must have to take it completely apart. TV for clues? Must have to unplug/change inputs. And anything not nailed down is bound to be broken"
2. Escape rooms aren't for everyone
"Had a group come in, I noticed they had been drinking a little, but seemed mostly fine. So I let them into the room and start the clock.
They were just wandering around. At the half an hour mark they were laying on the floor and rolling around. They didn't do any harm to the room. I don't remember if they even solved one puzzle. When I let them out after an hour they claimed it was fun. But they didn't really do anything? And did they remember it the next day? Idk"
1. These players with super strength
Giphy"At an escape room near me they had a group of lads on a stag do.
These guys got very drunk and during the escape room, thought they could escape via the sewers. The managed to rip out the manhole cover which was bolted down into concrete. This cover is now permanently broken as its too expensive to fix they said. Advised us to not escape via the sewers..."
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Believe it or not, people weren't always so concerned about keeping themselves clean. Some believe in misguided, old wives tales about germs. Others, unfortunately, are unable to care for themselves due to mental or physical health, or even finances.
Redditor u/joe691013 asked people for examples of the worst personal hygiene they've ever seen, and some tales were shocking and gross, while other examples were clearly a symptom of something more.
10. I wonder if customer's noticed
"I used to work retail and one day we had this woman come into the store who had not showered in months. She stunk the whole store up from just walking around. We had to ask her to leave due to hygiene.
I will never forget that stench. It was like low tide and a dead body had been sitting around for a month."
9. This extreme hoarder
"I work in an ER in a low income area, there was one that I'll never forget. She was a mid 40s obese hoarder who had decided it wasn't worth the effort to get out of her recliner for two weeks straight; she had a fridge within reach so she wasn't hungry but was producing feces and urine the entire time without getting up to use the restroom or to clean herself. You could smell her down the hall with the door closed and her behind was literally rotting away with pressure sores down to her bones."
8. I'm sure bad hygiene is a deal breaker for her now
"I have a girl friend who thought that it was normal for guys to have dingleberries. Poor girl was going down on a guy with matted turd fur."
7. Thank your dentist
"I had a friend with very low self esteem. could never find a gf. self pity type of guy. he had the worst grime/film on his teeth. I told him he wont find a gf until he cleans his teeth because its repulsive to anyone with any respect for themselves (in less words) he denied it saying someone will like him for him. blah blah blah. well one day his grandma paid for him to see a dentist who made them pearly whites once again... not 2 weeks later had himself a gf. still thinks it was never the problem."
6. Mints are not a cure all
"I worked at an engine assembly plant in NY state where everyone is in these 3-5 station teams that rotate every hour so you don't go crazy doing the same job for 8+ hours. We had this dude who came to our group who had the nastiest teeth I've ever seen in my life. His bottom front teeth were all fused together into one big, lower tusk. And his breath could gag a maggot. It got so difficult to work with the guy (you could smell his breath from at least 6 feet away) that we had to go to a manager to figure out how to handle it and not be dicks. Well they basically told him he needed to do something about it, so he constantly had a tub of mints on him. After that, his breath just smelled like a rotting corpse AND mint. So, yay..."
5. The nerve to just leave them there...
"I had a part time job at Uni cleaning out student rooms after the occupants had moved out. One room was left with no fewer than 28 bottles of piss that the occupant had decided just to leave in the room. The shared bathroom was next door."
4. No, dirty hands are just dirty hands
Giphy"So, I used to work at this really upscale vegan hot-pot restaurant a few years ago. The owner/manager was very adamant on how it's 'ok not to wash your hands because in my country, washing hands meant you're cleaning off the hard work you've done.' She was the only person who would, even after using the bathroom, we knew she wouldn't wash her hands, she'd use gloves yes since she'd handle food sometimes, but even then, still wash your ******* hands."
3. Maybe inbox them about it?
"I met a girl on a dating app...we got along well online...but she smelled like @ss in person. I'm talking fully clothed and several feet away, there was still a stench. I was really embarrassed for her tbh. She complained about guys ghosting her and not knowing why. I mean it's not easy to tell someone. I don't know how you couldn't be aware of it either."
2. Poor patient...
"I'm a nurse, so I've seen some ****.
But the worst would be a woman with scabies and fleas. I don't know how she got them, but she was so ashamed of having them, that she basically just barricaded herself at home for some weeks, until her daughter got her admitted to the hospital.
I'm not exaggerating when I say that everything on her jumped when you came close to her bed or she moved.
She had them everywhere and I mean EVERYWHERE.
I spare you the description of her intimate area."
1. Don't touch any kind of poop bare handed
"I went to a friends house and she picked up poop from her cat's litter box with her hand, and proceeded not to wash her hands."
Do you have something to confess to George? Text "Secrets" or "
" to +1 (310) 299-9390 to talk to him about it.
Hotel guests can be careless about their personal possessions and strange behaviors. Besides, they may figure that they'll never run into any of the other guests or hotel staff, and so the impressions they make don't really matter. But the impressions some guests make are, frankly, unforgettable. When gross belongings and strange habits are discovered by hotel workers, best believe that the story will be shared forever.
Redditor u/LucasSkudy asked hotel workers, "What was the strangest thing you've found in someone's room?" And it proved that hotel staff remember everything.
10. This trashy rearrangement
"Well its not exactly something that was there but more like something missing. I had to call some guests to see why they havent checked out with the front desk but I didnt get a response. I went to the room (the room being a 2 bedroom suite and they actually had 2 suites booked) and when I entered there was no one there. The room was trashed with garbage everywhere and literally a pizza slice stuck to the ceiling (which I'm assuming was made purposefully as a joke?) but one thing stuck out. The fridge was missing. I looked around but couldnt find it. 'Did they steal it?'. The moment I entered the other bedroom suite, which was as well trashed but not as bad as the previous one, and went in one of the bedrooms I finally saw it. The fridge was there. They moved the fridge from one suite to the other and put it next to the bed."
9. Dirty things under the bed
"Sex toys, a lot of them, all under the bed in the metal box frame. Like I mean enough to start your own sex store... Also about used 50 syringes, burnt spoon and other drug paraphernalia.
Oh the stories I can tell from working in hotels for so many years."
8. This guest that missed the toilet
Giphy"I worked as a part time small hotel cleaner. I found someone's piss in the kettle in one of the rooms."
6. This contaminated kitchen
"Frequent traveler here. I was staying at a full suite hotel and had a kitchenette. In the back of the utensil drawer there was a butt plug mixed in with the small items like the wine opener, measuring spoons, and such. I stopped cooking at that point and just went with carry out food."
5. How'd they get this past the lobby?
"I worked overnight at a best Western. Checked a guy and girl in. Got a noise complaint about 3AM. They somehow managed to get his motorcycle in the room (this still confused me as i really believe i would've noticed) and were revving the engine and heavily intoxicated. Wtf are some people thinking man?!?"
4. The butter game
"I worked in a hotel/casino as overnight MOD. I had to issue a noise complaint one night and after about 5 minutes of standing outside the room knocking and the guest not coming to the door myself and security let ourselves in. This dude had like 6 girls in the room with him and the bed was covered in visqueen and the visqueen was covered in butter and on top of the butter was thousands and thousands of dollars. Dude was having these women cover each other in butter and then roll around in the money. Whatever attached to them they kept."
3. This comfy doll
"Doesn't quite fit in here but room service once tucked in my stuffed animal when I wasn't there. Just thought that was super cute."
2. A muffin stuntman
"Was a part-time housecleaning service in a hotel, this is a bit weird, but not gross, some guy standing in swim trunks on the bed, with 5 fricking muffins balanced on his head, I just left and did it the cleaning an hour later, and the guy looked a bit embarrassed outside of the door."
1. This illegal operation
Giphy"Knocked, no answer, walked in to see 2 sweaty men with guns around them. In the middle the ironing board open with different trays of green dye, paper everywhere, and a photo copier. They were attempting to make counterfeit money. I slowly shut the door and went about my business. I got a good tip when they left, and yes it was real money."
Do you have something to confess to George? Text "Secrets" or "" to +1 (310) 299-9390 to talk to him about it.
Cops sometimes have no choice but to arrest people who may not be the brightest. If the infraction is bad enough, lawyers will later on have to defend their clients and make sense of their bad choices.
Redditor u/BananaboiBAMF asked, "Lawyers and police officers, what is the dumbest reason you've seen someone get arrested?"Authority figures had some funny stories to share about crime gone wrong.
10. Impatience doesn't pay
"Someone in my town crashed into a telephone pole and took out the power. The road was closed off while things were sorted out. One lady decided she couldn't take the long way home and crashed into the same telephone pole. She was arrested for drunk driving."
9. Not a math wiz
Giphy"I was on a ride-along. Guy gets pulled over, hands his brother's ID to the officer. It is not a good match. Officer asks him when he was born. He gets that one right. Asks him how old he is. He's off by two years. He's being put in the car and the officer says 'You're the first guy I've arrested for bad math.'"
8. Lesson not learned
"Work for a smaller county. Last fall we got a group of people coming me down from a nearby city to rob a hemp farm, thinking it was weed growing along the highway. Several of the crack team of bandits where arrested and lodged. The kicker is it was explained explicitly how dumb it was, that you can't even get high of the stuff, but the very next weekend they came back down and tried to pull it off again. Only this time the farmer was home and ended up holding them all at gun point till we arrived."
7. This guy was long gone
"I arrested a guy who continually called 911 asking police to bring him weed and a cheeseburger. He then proceeded to eat the foam padding of my roll bars in the back seat. I've never seen someone trip so bad."
6. This proud defendant
"Not me, but my grandma was a lawyer. She had to defend someone who stole from a store in a city in Hungary around midnight. The only reason they got caught was because they used some matches to light up the place, and that set the fire alarm off. As if that wasn't enough, a few weeks later in court, my grandma tells the judge to look at the kid, how young he was and that he couldn't have been strong enough to break open the door or carry something outside and steal it. At this point the defendant stands up, points at his muscles and shouts 'hell yeah I could!'. That's basically when my grandma gave up. As far as I know he got a few months in prison."
5. The mistaken thief
"Underage 'kid' (he was 20, I think), who has been drinking and still has the beer on him, decides he's hungry. He goes into a mini mart and hides the beer in his pocket so that no one knows he's been drinking.
Goes to buy his snacks and the clerk notices that this kid has tucked extremely noticeable beers into his pocket. Clerk calls the cops and tells them that the kid was shoplifting beer.
The cops actually believed the kid's story but arrested him anyway for underage drinking. He spent the night in jail."
4. Hand sanitizer is a treasure
Giphy"There was a news story in Denmark recently. A guy had stolen the customer hand sanitizer from a pharmercy after he picked up his prescription drugs. Because of his prescription they easily identified him. Police called him and asked him to return it. He refused so they had to pay him a visit, seize the hand sanitizer and also arrest him."
3. Don't just slap people, cop or not
"My dad once got arrested because he didnt believe the cop in civies was a real cop. So he slapped him. Turns out he really was a real cop..."
2. Drove right up to a cell
"Not a police officer or a lawyer but someone I went to school with took MDMA and then decided to go for a drive and the police tried to pull him over and he tried to escape ran like 8 red lights and crashed into a prison of all places"
1. They start younger and younger...
"I used to work at a juvenile detention center. We had a local police department bring in a ten year old boy for hitting his house with a broomstick."
Do you have something to confess to George? Text "Secrets" or "" to +1 (310) 299-9390 to talk to him about it.