- Take note: do not attempt to climb inside enormous stone genitalia.
People occasionally go into places where they shouldn’t. And sometimes, they can’t get out of there.
We’ve brought you stories of people who got trapped or stuck in unusual places before, such as the one about the lady who couldn’t get out of her slipper bathtub. But there are many other such tales out there, each one stranger than the last.
So, it’s about time we take another look at this subject — if only to give people a reminder to pay attention to their surroundings.
Here are another six people who got stuck in bizarre places.
1. Claw Machine
In July 2025, a young boy was arrived at a community center in Ohio. After wandering around for a bit, he approached the center’s arcade claw machine game.
It seems the boy didn’t have any coins to play the game, but he sure seemed fascinated by the stuffed animals inside the metal box. He then obviously decided that not being able to play the game wouldn’t stop him from getting his prize.
The boy crawled into the prize-dispending chute in front of the machine until his head and arms popped out inside it. He could now reach the prize toys — but he also realized he couldn’t get out.
Fortunately, other people at the community center had noticed the boy’s plight and called for help. The local fire and rescue workers managed to extract him, unharmed but ashamed.
2. Dinosaur Statue
Not all stories of people getting stuck have a happy ending. This Spanish tale of a man in a dinosaur is one of those.
In 2021, a father and son went to see a papier-mache stegosaurus erected in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, a Barcelona suburb. The thing must’ve been somehow open on the top, because they were horrified to see a person’s legs sticking out from the hollow dinosaur.
The father alerted the police, but unfortunately they were too late. Rescuers found that the unnamed 39-year-old man inside the dinosaur was already dead.
He had been reported as missing by his family only hours earlier. It seems he had been trying to retrieve his phone, which he must’ve dropped inside the statue. Sadly, he became trapped with tragic results.
3. ATM Machine (Maintenance Room)
You may have heard of the Texas man who got trapped inside an ATM machine in 2017. However, most news articles about the event didn’t tell the whole story.
James Portillo, a technician, had been installing an ATM machine at a Corpus Christi bank. However, wasn’t inside the machine itself, but the tight maintenance room behind it.
The bank was under construction at the time, and someone — without realizing Portillo was in the maintenance room — dumped a bunch of debris in front of its door. Portillo couldn’t get out, and as the ATM serviced a drive-through lane, the customers using it couldn’t hear his cries for help over their car engines.
Eventually, Portillo started slipping small paper notes through the ATM’s receipt slot. They finally caught someone’s attention and they alerted the authorities to come and rescue the trapped technician after three hours.
4. Traffic Cone
Sometimes, a bunch of guys having fun do stupid things because they’re a bunch of guys having fun. In 2013, the police had to rescue a man who’d gotten his head trapped in a large traffic cone.
He had been out and about with his friends when someone dared him to stick his head in the cone. The man did, but found that he couldn’t get it off anymore.
His friends didn’t help him because they thought he was still kidding around, so they left him to his own devices. Alcohol may or may not have been involved in the events.
After two hours in the cone, a passerby finally took the trapped man’s plight seriously and called for help. We bet the guy had a few choice words for his buddies afterward.
5. Women’s Prison
In 2011, a 24-year-old German man was wandering about in Hannover. He was on his way to a nearby park, when he saw a small garden area that looked like a great shortcut.
But the man didn’t realize that when he walked through the garden gate, he had entered the grounds of Hilldesheim women’s prison. When he realized where he was, he turned around — only to find the gate had locked behind him due to what was later determined to be a faulty latch.
He was now stuck behind the bars, but fortunately the local mayor was walking by and heard the man calling for aid. The mayor called the cops, but they initially declined to help as they thought the guy was staging a prison break.
Luckily, the mayor was acquainted with the trapped man and vouched for his character (and he also pointed out he was a man stuck in women’s prison). The police eventually freed the man from his accidental imprisonment.
6. Giant Vagina Sculpture
In 2000, the German city of Tuebingen got controversial statue. A stone sculpture depicting a six-foot-tall vagina was installed outside the microbiology and virology department of the Tuebingen University Hospital.
It has since become a popular tourist attraction (for obvious reasons). In 2014, however, an American exchange student became so fascinated with the sculpture that he wanted to take a closer look.
By which we mean he attempted to climb into the humongous vagina for a funny photo.
Too bad for him, his foot became stuck and he couldn’t pull out. It took 22 firemen 30 minutes to finagle him out from the sculpture’s welcoming folds.
“Forceps delivery was not necessary,” the fire department quipped afterward.