'The fire extinguisher is NOT part of the puzzle': 40 Escape room escapades that caught the employees by surprise

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 29, 2023 11:00 AM EST

These escape room employees have seen it all. As they surveille the escape room their group of players are in, they've noticed that some people don't play by the rules. In fact, quite a lot of people just act like they've never learned how to follow directions. 

In case you aren't familiar with escape rooms, fear not: they're not as dramatic as the name may sound. They're a type of immersive puzzle game. Usually, a group of two or more people will visit a themed escape room, and are given an hour to try and exit the room by solving puzzles and figuring out clues. That doesn't mean you're locked inside, though, as a lot of people mistakenly believe. Most rooms have a rule that you can leave if you need to—you just can't come back inside. 

You also have to sign some waivers before you play. If you don't know why that is, just read a few of the stories below. 

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  • These escape room employees shared their weirdest and funniest stories from their side of the experience. The employees watch their group of players on a camera, where they can give them clues. Sometimes, they also have to scold players about touching objects that they shouldn't touch (because why would a clue be inside a smoke detector or a fire extinguisher?) Other times, players flipped out and smashed props. Sometimes, they just get lucky and solve the puzzles way too fast. 

    Check out these excellent tales below. Then, read about the strange reasons these managers had to fire an employee. 

  • 01
    Escape Room employees, what's the weirdest way you've seen customers try and solve an escape room? Zirael_Swallow When I was in one they told us several times that the fire extinguisher is NOT part of the puzzle. They said it so many times, I'm 98% sure someone once used it lol
    via thom masat on Unsplash
  • 02
    Escape Room employees, what's the weirdest way you've seen customers try and solve an escape room?
    via u/u/CaptainCatB***
  • 03
    sharrrper A friend of mine works for an escape room and he told me one about a puzzle where the key to the next door was shackled to a desk by a combination lock. What you are supposed to do is figure out the combination for the lock from the clues around the room to free the key.
    via u/sharrrper
  • 04
    What one group decided to do instead was get a guy on each corner and pick up the 150 pound desk and carry it across the room, slide the key into the lock, and then rotate the entire desk to unlock the door.
    via u/sharrrper
  • 05
    brasscassette I used to work at one. I can't tell you how many people thought that power outlets were a prop and tried to stick keys into them. Guys. There was a lamp plugged into it and a "do not touch, not a part of the game" sticker on it. It's not a trick, don't do that.
    via u/brasscassette
  • 06
    Dorza1 I am not an escape room employee but I did a lot of em and talked to the employees often. One of them told me there was a simple lock (opened by a key) that had "Yale" written on it (the name of the lock company) and a lady (not native English speaker) thought it read "yell" and legit shouted "OPEN!!" at it, expecting it to open.
    via u/Dorza1
  • 07
    babers1987 Recently went to an escape room with my co-workers. Before we started, we were explicitly warned not to touch or drink the bright blue water coming out of a fountain because it would turn our skin blue - clearly people had tried searching the fountain as part of the escape room previously and now they have to warn everyone.
    via u/babers1987
  • 08
    Zirael_Swallow When I was in one they told us several times that the fire extinguisher is NOT part of the puzzle. They said it so many times, I'm 98% sure someone once used it lol
    via u/Zirael_Swallow
  • 09
    Snowflake222 Had a group of engineers who were familiar with the style of the lock effectively reverse engineer the lock. They showed us how they did it afterwards.
    via u/Snowflake222
  • 10
    PCCoatings There was a story on here a while ago about a guy in a group of four who took a broom from the first room because "it had to be for something". He said it looked too out of place to not be needed. Well he was half right. It was out of place but that's because it was the broom used by employees to clean the room. It was simply forgotten when they cleaned
    via u/PCCoatings
  • 11
    last time. The guys giving hints thought it was hilarious that this guy carried a broom through four rooms expecting it to be the key to their escape at some point. I thought that was funny as
    via u/PCCoatings
  • 12
    Th3_Accountant We were supposed to find the numbers to a padlock. My boss had guessed the answer within 5 minutes.
    via u/Th3_Accountant
  • 13
    Xenomorph_Queen One of the puzzles is opened at the start of the room to reveal a large jug of water with a floating key, but the water level is too low for you to reach it. As you progress through the room you get smaller canteens to fill up the jug.
    via u/Xenomorph_Queen
  • 14
    Bachelor party comes in already tipsy, orders multiple drinks as they progress through the room, and at some point one of them into the jug to raise the water level. This is what made me leave for another job. If you ever go to an escape room, just know we're judging you for every move you make.
    via u/Xenomorph_Queen
  • 15
    ✪ [deleted] Breaking EVERYTHING. Trying to eat or drink things they should totally not be trying to eat or drink.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 16
    ifthen_endif Went on a team building escape room and ended up in a room with a colleague we'll call "Jeff". Jeff is profoundly deaf and a large part of this particular room involved listening to messages on Dictaphones that could be found in different drawers* etc.
    via u/ifthen_endif
  • 17
    About ten minutes into the timer an employee burst into the room in a panic and we turned to find Jeff taking the Dictaphone apart piece by piece because he had no idea it was making any sound. He was not supposed to do that, still a top bloke.
    via u/ifthen_endif
  • 18
    MrNighty I don't know if it's the weirdest but we had a puzzle which involved morse code. Usually you had to use an endoscope to find the alphabet in a chest. One person in this group actually knew the whole alphabet and was able to solve it.
    via u/MrNighty
  • 19
    [deleted] My brother and sister once did an escape room where they fell behind 45 minutes in to their one hour limit. Then my brother sat down at the piano and just played the background music that was on (he has perfect pitch). This happened to be the code to open the final door.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 20
    bbgreenie I was in a room once with a puzzle that required UV light - and you did find a UV torch somewhere. Problem was, the batteries were as good as dead. Luckily I had a UV torch on me because I hadn't yet unpacked my pockets from night geocaching the previous weekend. Came out of the room, telling the employees, "Your UV badly needs new batteries." - "How did you solve it then?" - "Well, had my own..."
    via u/bbgreenie
  • 21
    Patrickownzya I was part of a group that had surprised the employee because he witnessed us skipping a bunch of the puzzle on the camera.
    via u/Patrickownzya
  • 22
    There was a puzzle involving a box you could look into, but when looking inside the content was all blurry. In order to see the next clue, we had to put a sort of lens in front of it so that the clue would be readable. However, we found out that by looking through a very small seam, we could make out what the clue was supposed to be without ever finding the lens.
    via u/Patrickownzya
  • 23
    Kenobi_01 I did a spy thriller which had a chalk board. Trouble is, 3 of the 4 of us were scientists. A chalkboard full of equations?! Clearly this meant something. Now. In hindsight. It seems unlikely that any puzzle designer would expect you have the working knowledge to solve quadratic equations. Or that you'd need anything but the most basic of mathematical skills.
    via u/Kenobi_01
  • 24
    So that was our first error. The second error was when our friend (fiance of one of the three scientists and only non scientist of the bunch) immediately goes to erase the board with its immaculate display of complicated formulae and equations. She was immediately wrestled to the ground. Sheer panic. No dignity. Are you crazy!? You don't just erase someones chalkboard!!! Full blown PTSD of uni is the play here. Lo and behold.
    via u/Kenobi_01
  • 25
    Erasing the board revealed some unerasableble text, spelling out the clue. We felt bad for that one. She was right.
    via u/Kenobi_01
  • 26
    irrelevant_usernam3 Not an employee, but I went with a group of friends once. It was a room where you started out with your ankle shackled to the wall and just had to get to a door to escape. As soon as the timer starts, this shy, quiet girl in the group takes off her shoe and sock, yanks her foot completely out of place, slides the shackle off, resets it, and walks out the door.
    via u/irrelevant_usernam3
  • 27
    It turned out she had some condition that makes her joints super flexible. But she set the record for the fastest escape time!
    via u/irrelevant_usernam3
  • 28
    Geeky Monkey I have a friend who solved one in a similar manner. We were all shackled to a post, so he just removed his artificial leg, slide the shackle off, and said "well guys, this has been fun - meet you in the bar in a hour?" and walked out leaving us all there!
    via u/Geeky Monkey
  • 29
    00 Professor Beer Not an employee, but while doing a casino-themed escape room with some colleagues, the worker told us "please do not pull the lever on the slot machine as it will break something later in the game." The timer started and my coworker went "well we're obviously supposed to do that first" and pulled the lever. We were not supposed to do that first. She broke the machine.
    via u/Professor Beer
  • 30
    wholovesburritos Not an employee, but was in a group doing an escape room. One of our people just went to the keypad lock and randomly started pushing buttons. Actually got the right combination less than 2 minutes in. The employee came in, asked if she remembered what she pressed (she didn't), then slowly closed and relocked the door while leering at us like Lucille Bluth.
    via u/wholovesburritos
  • 31
    phunkjnky I had some friends enter an escape room that as part of the puzzle, had a numeric keypad on the wall to let them out. Upon entering, my friend thought it would be hilarious to randomly press some buttons. He stumbled upon the correct code, and they were out in under a minute, and no he has no idea what buttons he pressed.
    via u/phunkjnky
  • 32
    AHOT GW2Qwinn Not an Employee, but worked at a place that shared a wall with one. I would regularly hear laughing, expletives, and other fun things... but nothing will ever beat the kid that just sat in there (Sherlock Holmes themed escape room) screaming at the top of his lungs "Moriarty you son of a !" Over and over for what seemed to be the whole time. I asked one of the employees later about it, and they said they didn't even solve half the puzzles (he was in there with another person)
    via u/GW2Qwinn
  • 33
    xeothought Not an employee... but my group once was so bad that we solved the room by fully misunderstanding the concept and we ended up getting the five digit code to the lockbox via some truly failed logic that shouldn't have worked.
    via u/xeothought
  • 34
    [deleted] Immediately opening the door (the door isn't actually locked due to legal/safety reasons) after me explaining that they can leave at any time if they require it. It was from some dr nk idiots with the attention span of 2 seconds not understanding the point of an escape room and screaming in the hallway directly next to another game running. No, just because you're outside of the room does not mean you win.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 35
    Vikerish Not an employee but I saw A post a few years back where a group had used up their 3 hints and were hopelessly confused still. So in an act of desperation 15 minutes before their time was up they performed a "Mock Sacrifice" using the pentagram already
    via u/Vikerish
  • 36
    on the floor (This was a horror-themed room) and laid one of their friends on the floor while the other 4 chanted the Halo theme hoping they would be granted a 4th hint. Truly I wish i was making this up
    via u/Vikerish
  • 37
    Torma25 Group of high school kids. Not exactly the smartest bunch, got stuck. There's a semi- decorative wardrobe in one of the rooms, it's basically there to hold a few lamps and hide some wiring. Kids decided there's a "hidden doorway" behind it. I told them there wasn't. They didn't really care so they ripped the wardrobe off the wall it was fixed to, basically ruining most of the wiring which meant they had no way to solve a bunch of stuff and I had to tell them to leave.
    via u/Torma25
  • 38
    On the other end of the spectrum: in the same room there's a chessvoard with two (2) pieces that have magnets on the bottom (in my country magnetic chess sets are pretty common). There's a key that can only be moved with a magnet because it's in a narrow tube. When players find the key and don't yet know the pawns have magnets we usually try to subtly direct them to the chessboard with hints like
    via u/Torma25
  • 39
    "you seem to be in kind of a checkmate there". One day this (very loud and confident) mega genius decies they have to create a checkmate on the board. The board that has two pieces neither of which are kings. He is very adamant that this is the solution, shuts down anybody who suggest otherwise and eventuall gets mad because he was given an "impossible puzzle".
    via u/Torma25
  • 40
    Mindless_Algae Not an employee, but my brother is an escape room enthusiast. He was in a three- story jailbreak scenario escape room. The final step was to pull a lever that was on the ground floor, several stories down from the top floor where they were, to turn off the "electricity" and escape. The only material they had was a rope, and the idea was that you were supposed to make a loop with the rope,
    via u/Mindless_Algae
  • 41
    lower it down to the bottom floor, and use it to pull up the lever. However, my brother decided the solution was to tie the rope around his waist, jump out the window, and rappel down to pull the lever himself. He managed to do that before the escape room employees could stop him, and afterwards they just said "Yeah... you were definitely not supposed to do that".
    via u/Mindless_Algae
  • 42
    soaringbulldog Not an employee, but the first escape room i ever did, i accidently skipped nearly every puzzle in the first two minutes without realizing. Afterwards, the employees told me I was the first to have done it that way. I was filling in for an already paid for slot and had no idea what was happening. Everyone else dashes off to explore and there's nothing clear for me to do, so I decide to chill. The theme was a ghost run bar, so I head over
    via u/soaringbulldog
  • 43
    to the bartender, who at this point is the only one not scrambling around. "So you're a ghost, huh? That's cool. How'd you die?" He gives me this scripted answer and points me over to this closet. I go check it out, find a skeleton, decide that's creepy and go back and chat with the bartender some more. 30 minutes later someone from the group decodes a message: ask the bartender how he died. There's one more
    via u/soaringbulldog
  • 44
    puzzle behind the skeleton, that triggers a scripted scene, a final puzzle and it's over. In my defense, it was a GHOST bartender. What else was I supposed to ask?
    via u/soaringbulldog
  • 45
    tokikain a couple went in together and within fourteen minutes the one was busy trying to kick down the door while the other tried breaking everything looking for secret keys...to a number combination lock... edit: ive also seen a kid figure out the code by dumb luck within half a minute of walking in. just pushed random buttons and CLICK.... opens....i need that kind of luck with the lottery!
    via u/tokikain
  • 46
    Tasty01 My friend took out a working light bulb and put his fingers in because "Why would they put things in the room that aren't part of the puzzle?". He got shocked.
    via u/Tasty01
  • 47
    + [deleted] A lady in my group tried to unlock a 3 digit 0-9 bike lock going one turn at a time starting at 0-0-0, 0-0-1,0-0-2 etc. I asked her what dshe was doing and she said she was systematically trying to open the lock. Can't argue with that I guess
    via u/[deleted]
  • 48
    hammeaj A friend did a zombie escape room with his work friends and told me this. The room had lady dressed as a zombie who was chained to a wall and the chain would periodically get longer. Rules were if the "zombie" touched you, you were out and had to sit down. I guess the idea was you had to distract the "zombie" to get items on that side of the room in order to escape. Well, my
    via u/hammeaj
  • 49
    friend, being an outside the box sort of thinker, picked the rug up off the floor and tackled the "zombie" and wrapped her up in it. Then he sat on her. The rest of his team just went ahead and solved the room in record time.
    via u/hammeaj
  • 50
    Kuragewa Nothing extraordinary but I got a few weirdos: trying every code on a lock for an hour and an half • not trusting the clues I gave them to help • trying to unscrew the electrical outlets after being told there was nothing involving electricity
    via u/Kuragewa
  • 51
    Cenoflame There's a clue that involves looking under a rug. It says the floor under your feet is burning. People will assume it means the floor is lava, and they all cram on top of the chair we have in the room. I've seen 8 people on there before.
    via u/Cenoflame
  • 52
    [deleted] Not an employee but an employee of an escape room we went to told us people kept getting into the ceiling
    via u/[deleted]
  • 53
    OF+4440 Ross123123 There's one room where they are supposed to climb through a cutout in a prison cell and somebody climbed up over the entire room (there's no ceiling)
    via u/Ross123123
  • 54
    Freakintrees Did one where we were split into 3 groups of two, my cousin and I started handcuffed and the keys were in another groups room. I had our cuffs off with a hairpin she happened to have in under a minute. The employee told us after that plenty of people try that but I was the first to not waste more time than it takes to find the key so that was neat.
    via u/Freakintrees
  • 55
    tonyenkiducx Not an employee, but my partner went to one and started pulling insulation wool out of the wall until an employee came in to tell her it wasn't part of the game. They did not escape..
    via u/tonyenkiducx
  • 56
    OasisFighter This one mf got claustrophobic and broke the door. Idk why u would do an escape room if you know you have claustrophobia.
    via u/OasisFighter
  • 57
    Byakkou Solution involved laying down in a coffin that move to get the next clue. One group was stuck so we gave a hint like "maybe you need a rest to think". The group just laid flat on the ground and just stare at the ceiling, trying to find something. It didn't work out so well.
    via u/Byakkou

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