Trapped! No SAK! No Multi-tool! NOTHING!

WadeF

WadeF

Joined
Apr 12, 2000
Messages
2,116
I had a little scare last night. It was around 4AM when my wife woke me up to let me know our 1 1/2 month old newborn son was crying. So I get up for the usual middle of the night routine of changing a diaper, bringing him to my wife for feeding, etc. All was going well as I stumbled around our bedroom and made my way to the door. I grabbed the door knob and was surprised when it pulled off the door! At first I wasn't to alarmed, but I soon realized I wasn't able to get the door open without it! So I tried to pull the metal bar (sorry, don't know the technical term) out that the door knob attaches too. Now, this is where me being half asleep didn't help. I wasn't thinking to clearly and I was starting to panic that we were trapped in our room and I couldn't get to our baby. I tried screwing it back on, but stupid me wasn't awake enough to loosen the set screw on the knob. So I gave up at that point and figured I'd move on to removing the pins from the hinges. This will do the trick I though. I removed the pins and starting pulling on the door. I live in an 80 year old house and these doors are solid wood, and this door fits tight. I couldn't budge the door! Now I was really worried. How the hell am I getting out of here sort of going out the window?!

Now, this is where the irony comes in. I have SAK's, multi-tools, etc, but I had left them all downstairs and I didn't have any tools in my bedroom! I did have a couple knives, but I wasn't ready to start prying the door open just yet, or chopping it down.

I then decided I would use a pin from the hinge to push the door knob linkage thing all the way through and out so I could try and turn the latch with something else. So I start looking around the room for something that could turn the inside parts of the latch. I started looking through my wife's make up, etc. I then found a small pair of nail clippers! I folded them open and jammed the lever part in there and turned "CLICK" success! I felt like an idiot that I had so much trouble with the door and I was really freaked out that something as simple as the door knob pulling off could lead to such a situation. My wife was freaking out because we couldn't get to the baby and she wanted me to call my Dad to come over, etc, but I wasn't going to do that until all options were exhausted. :)

So from now on I'm going to make sure to keep a multi-tool and some other tools stashed in the bedroom. Maybe a pry-bar too. :) I'm also going to hit the hardware store and pick up a better door knob as the one that was installed on this door is a cheap POS.
 
Put your shoes on and stomp on the door until you can get it down? Man, that must a been real scare. Good to see you kept your cool during it.
 
silenthunterstudios said:
Put your shoes on and stomp on the door until you can get it down? Man, that must a been real scare. Good to see you kept your cool during it.
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Well, the door opens into the bedroom, so I'd be trying to kick it the wrong way. I also live in a twin so my neighbors would probably freak out if they heard me trying to kick through that door. :) I think I'd break myself before the door, it's solid. If it wasn't so tight I could probably have gotten it off by removing the pins, but it makes such a tight fit when closed there is no playin the door to wiggle it out with the pins off. It was pretty freaky at the time.
 
This is exactly the reason why I keep plastic explosives in my bedroom. :)

Seriously though, what if there had been a fire, and you were trapped in there. Yikes.

Thankfully my bedroom has a sliding glass door leading out to the backyard.
 
Gary007 said:
Seriously though, what if there had been a fire, and you were trapped in there. Yikes.
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That exact thought was going through my mind during that. "Boy, this would suck if there was a fire and the smoke alarm was going off and the room was filling with smoke!"

I'd have a hard time finding those nail clippers in a smokey room. At that point we'd have two windows to escape through. One leading to our back porch which is a pretty good drop if you were to jump, or the other to our front porch which is an old slate roof so I'd be nervous going out on that, but it would be better than nothing. Also it wraps around our twin so we could go on the neighbor's side and maybe they could let us in their window. :)

I guess in those fire safety classes they should teach you to make sure your door isn't defective. They only say "Touch the door to see if it's hot." but they don't say "Make sure the door knob doesn't fall off!" :)
 
Doesn't everyone keep a multi in the bedroom? Or am I really as strange as my wife claims? :confused:

Paul
 
It's not just you. I have probably 3 SAKs and a couple Leathermans in the bedroom.
 
I had a similiar scare once when I was babysitting. The kid went to the bathroom and shut the door. Unfortunately, the doorknob had been broken off previously, so the kid couldn't open the door. I eventually found a toy screwdriver to pull the latch back and open the door, but it was an unnerving couple of minutes since the kid was crying. This was when I was 13 or so I think, so it was before I started carrying my own tools.
 
I have one in my bedroom, right in my Maxpedition bag. Also have two Buck 110's on my Bombay night stand. :)

PWork said:
Doesn't everyone keep a multi in the bedroom? Or am I really as strange as my wife claims? :confused:

Paul
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I have a SAK, Leatherman, Remington 870 w/ Hogue overmolded 12"lop, little fridge w/ guinness, etc in the bedroom... The girlfriend on the other hand keeps only clothes in there and she thinks I'm the weird one!
 
Buzzbait said:
It's not just you. I have probably 3 SAKs and a couple Leathermans in the bedroom.
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Same here, I've got 3 SAKS also, plus my leatherman and a couple fixed blades. WadeF, have you tried planing down the door, the fit really shouldn't be that tight. I've worked for a man whose business is installing and servicing doors and hardware, and that's often his solution for tight fits. Dremel actually makes a tool designed specifically for that, you can get it through Amazon.com. It fits the XPR models. Schlage and Yale make good locksets, if you're looking for a new one. Glad everything worked out okay in the end. Hope you get it fixed okay.

Lagarto
 
PWork said:
Doesn't everyone keep a multi in the bedroom? Or am I really as strange as my wife claims? :confused:

Paul
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I keep the bulk of my knives and multi's in my bedroom, the key Wade is never panic, now go buy a Peter Atwood Pry Baby, and put one of my lanyards on it and hang it froma door knob. :D

Glad everything turned out ok.
 
What a scare! I highly suggest making your own Bug (Bail) Out Bag (BOB) with a few essentials to be stored in your bedroom. A basic medical kit, toolkit or sturdy multi tool, knife, flashlight and batteries. This BOB could be tailored to how basic or complete you want it to be. You just never know when emergencies arise.

Also, if your house does not have a built in fire escape ladder, i suggest getting a folding or stow away fire escape ladder for each room. A fire extinguisher per room would be a plus too. Your experience is an eye-opener!
 
Your just lucky a guy with a hockey mask and machete wasn't chasing you. ;)

Yeah, that's one of those weird unforeseen circumstances. Having some kind of multi-tool, knife, screw driver, etc, etc, etc (and a flashlight, what if the power had been out?) in every room is a good idea.

Anyhow, nice to have a non-emergency "dry run" with just enough drama to get everyone thinking. Glad everything worked out for you and your family.
 
WadeF said:
At that point we'd have two windows to escape through. One leading to our back porch which is a pretty good drop if you were to jump,
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My bedroom is also on the second story and our house is on a slope. That means the shortest drop from a master bedroom window is almost fifteen feet.

To deal with that, I keep a fire ladder under one of the windows. It's a chain-type ladder with standoffs that comes in its own plastic storage box. It wasn't too expensive and takes up very little room.

In an emergency we can just open the window, hook the top of the ladder over the sill, and drop it down the wall. It all takes well under a minute.

The part I worry about is climbing down it while carrying a 55-pound dog...

--Bob Q
 
I have a strange wee-hours multi-tool story of my own...

On the first night we stayed in our current house, while still moving stuff in, one of our cats managed to hide inside the pedestal of our waterbed as it was being assembled. We didn't hear her in there until around 2am, after the bed had been fully assembled and filled.

We could have drained the matress and disassembled the bed, but without a pump it would have taken hours and the cat was not in good shape from heat and dehydration. My regular tools had not yet been moved, so I couldn't go down to the shop for serious equipment.

The only tool available was the SwissTool I had been wearing the previous day. I pounded its chisel through the pedestal using a boot. Once I had a wide-enough slit all the way through the wood, I switched to the saw and cut a cat-sized opening. The cat drank her weight in water when she got out, but she was otherwise fine. Then we all went back to sleep.

I have rarely been faced with situations where a multi-tool was my only resource, but I have always been pleasantly surprised at how capable they are when you really need them.

--Bob Q
 
I keep my Glock 10mm by my bed, and my .50 Desert Eagle is also nearby, also fully loaded...If I have to, I can SHOOT my bedroom door down.:D.
 
Just in your bedroom? What about on your person. I sleep with my Native clipped to my shorts, that way if the Ninjas attack I'm always ready. :D

Actually I locked myself in my toilet in a similair incident last year. I live alone, in the bush so no-one was there to hear me scream. The habit of always having an EDC clipped to the shorts paid off. I was able to use my Spyderco Military to chip the wood around the lock away until I was able to go ballistic and rip the entire locking mechanism out.
 
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