Man Trapped In Public Washroom For Four Days
Posted December 11, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
David Leggat lived something out of a sitcom this weekend. But what happened to the retired school teacher was anything but funny. The 55-year-old was at a lawn bowling club in Aberdeen, Scotland, when nature called. So he went into the washroom, locked the door and took care of business.
But when he tried to get out, he found the door jammed. And when he jiggled the handle to try and force it open, things got worse. The knob fell off on the outside, effectively locking him in. He didn’t have a cell phone and the place is rarely used in the winter, so he had no choice but to sit and wait. And wait. And wait.
For four very long days and nights, he sat in the frigid room without anyone coming by. He says he was able to survive by drinking from the tap and occasionally soaking his feet in hot water for brief periods to try and stay warm. But in the end he only got about three hours sleep a night.
He was hungry, cold and beginning to fear his life would end in that tiny space, when a cleaner happened along on a rare sojourn through the grounds to collect her equipment, heard his cries for help and finally set him free. How does the ex-instructor explain his ability to survive without any food and no warmth for such a long time? Leggat once took a course in survival training and says he used that knowledge to keep his wits about him, even when no one else knew where he was.
And he kept a sense of humour with him, too, even after he was finally flushed free. “At least there was a toilet to use,” he concludes. “The only thing I regret is not getting trapped behind the bar.”
File photo
