- In an emergency, you’ll have to rely on whatever you have on hand.
Remember MacGyver? In case you’re too young for even the 2016 reboot, the show followed secret agent Angus MacGyver who’d often fashion improvised tools out of mundane objects.
For example, he might whip up a lockpick using eyeliner and a cotton swab. Just like the heroine of our story today.
Dr. Krisztina Ilko, a junior research fellow at the University of Cambridge, recently found herself in a predicament. The door of her bathroom managed to lock itself behind her.
Usually, that’s fairly easily resolvable, but not in Ilko’s case. You see, her apartment is in a medieval tower.
Her wooden bathroom door is thick enough to withstand a Norman siege and there are no windows in the thick tower walls. Ilko knew a cleaner would come by her apartment — in four days.
In an attempt to get out of the bathroom, Ilko grabbed the nearest objects she could find. Those were the aforementioned eyeliner and cotton swab.
After several hours of trying, she finally managed to release the door’s malfunctioning lock in an effort that would impress MacGyver himself.
A Historical Residence
It’d be easy to be jealous of Krisztina Ilko’s residence. After all, the 33-year-old director of studies at the University of Cambridge’s Queen’s College lives in a medieval tower that’s part of the university’s buildings.
That’s cool enough already, but it gets even better (at least if you’re a history buff). Ilko occupies the very same rooms where the 16th-century philosopher Erasmus lived 500 years ago.
The historical residence comes with period-appropriate construction. The tower’s stone walls are thick and nearly soundproof, the wooden doors are sturdy and heavy, and the windows are few and far between.
In the bathroom, for example, there are none.
All these factors came together in the worst possible way when Ilko entered her bathroom on March 29. The heavy bathroom door closed behind her — and then Ilko heard the lock clicking.
Now, most bathrooms have locks, but even this device is positively medieval at Ilko’s place. It’s an old metal lock that you need a key to open.
And Ilko had no key.
Bang and Shout
Try as she might, Ilko could not get the door to open. She was well and truly trapped in her own bathroom.
With no phone, she couldn’t call for help. Neither could she yell for help through the window since there weren’t any.
“I tried to bang the shower head on the door, break it with brute force, and shout for help but nothing worked and no one could hear me,” Ilko told the BBC.
There was some hope of rescue, though. Ilko knew that a cleaner would eventually come by her apartment and could surely help her get out.
However, the cleaner wasn’t due until the following Monday — and it was Thursday.
“I was trying to remember how long a person can survive on just water and hoping that I wouldn’t die there,” said Ilko.
A bit dramatic there, but then again, we’ve all had that moment of panic in situations like this.
Help Me, MacGyver
Ilko kept attempting to break the door down, but the doors were built different back in the day. All she was left with was a bruised shoulder.
Wondering what she could do, Ilko suddenly got a flashback from her childhood. She remembered how she used to watch MacGyver solve impossible problems with whatever he had in his pockets at the time.
Inspired by her childhood hero, Ilko began looking around for anything she could use to pick the bathroom lock. What she found was an eyeliner and a cotton swab.
Not ideal, but they would have to do.
Ilko got to work. She used the eyeliner to push down the lock’s latch. From the cotton swab, she fashioned a hook that could pull the locking mechanism away from the door frame.
It took her seven hours but finally, it all came together just right. The door swung open.
“When I eventually got out and the door opened it was exhilarating because I didn’t think it would work,” admitted Ilko.
As to why the lock malfunctioned, Ilko believes it was damaged by a plumber who repaired her shower earlier in the week. Fortunately, she doesn’t have to worry about the door locking after her again — after the ordeal, Ilko promptly had the entire lock removed.