Poor guy stuck in an elevator for 3 days with no water or food!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7392534/?GT1=6428

Good question...Hmmm.

I often carry a water bottle when on business, so that's one.
A whistle? Cell phone?

TRO

PS Don't you think his employers would have wondered after him...

Any place that keeps track of their elevators like that had better install some small toilets.

Sue

What I don't get is how the repair people overlooked that there was someone in the elevator they were fixing. Were there multiple elevators not working?

I hope he isn't sent back because he is undocumented, but I hope that now that he has some notiriety, he can get some help either getting legal or to get home.

Rena

I'd love to know the answer because it's one of my favourite nightmare scenarios. Many modern elevators are designed to keep you inside the box, on the grounds that if you get out of it you might fall down the shaft. The elevators in the World Trade Centre were like that. On 9/11 they malfunctioned and trapped many people inside. Some estimates blame 10% of the WTC death toll on the elevators. If the building is on fire, take the stairs.

I believe a whistle would help people find you better than shouting. A mobile phone is worth a try - I presume Chen didn't have one.

Some tools could help you escape despite the security. I EDC a Serbertool M4 which is puny but maybe better than nothing. When in town I usually carry a Leatherman Juice CS4. I also EDC a piece of hacksaw blade which serves partly as a striker, but which I carry mainly to have some hope of cutting metal in a situation like that.

I think a cell phone and whistle for sure would be handy! And yes, never use the elevator in a fire! They are often out of service and the shafts are natural chimneys for smoke.
Hard to imagine that you could be in a populated building stuck in an elevator and no one would notice! Lawsuit!!

Do they not know what elevator the he was talking from? If not, why didn’t they check them all. If I was him I would start doing like TeacherRO does and always carry water, and maybe an energy bar, from now on.

And if I read the artical right in my home town newspaper, he used the emergency alarm and was answered by the security personal. Because of the language barrier nothing was done. I don't understand that...

Apparently, he had just terminated his cell phone service a few days before he got stuck in the elevator.

I guess a lot of people don't know that you can call 911 from a cell phone even without service. If you can get a signal... If the battery isn't dead... If the 911 dispatcher doesn't hang up because he/she can't understand you.

Sue