A woman on TikTok has made an interesting discovery: elevators can receive phone calls.
TikTok user Sydney Utendahl (@sydneyutendahl) was in an elevator when a man mistakenly called, claiming that he was looking for “the Board of Education.”
“Never forget when someone called my elevator looking for the department of education?? still confused,” she captioned her video, which had amassed over 3 million views by Monday afternoon.
In the video, the man asks whether or not he has the right number. Confused, Utendahl replies, “Oh, no, this is an elevator.”
“Oh, oh… Okay,” the man responds, equally confused.
As Utendahl doesn’t know how to end the elevator call, the man offers to hang up. “We’re both confused,” her text overlay reads.
@sydneyutendahl Never forget when someone called my elevator looking for the department of education?? still confused.
♬ original sound – Sydney Utendahl
Elevator phones have come a long way over the years. According to TK Elevator, actual phone headsets were installed in most elevators in 1968 and became a mandated emergency feature in 1976. This way, passengers were able to communicate with emergency personnel.
As technology advanced, headset phones in elevators were replaced with a single-button programmable telephone that allowed passengers to speak to a live person 24 hours a day.
But since elevator phone lines aren’t the same as cellular devices, it’s unclear how the man in Utendahl’s TikTok was able to call her elevator.
Commenters on Utendahl’s video were also confused as to how this could have happened.
“Never realized this was possible LOL,” a user commented.
“I need him found. like?? “oh? mmh… okay.” iconic. y’all both handled this like it was so normal!!! how!!” another wrote.
Someone pointed out the irony of Utendahl saying that she didn’t know how to hang up the call when the button was right in front of her.
“Call cancel in the center of the camera view,” they wrote. “’I don’t know how to end the call.’”
Utendahl isn’t the first person to receive a random call in an elevator. A Reddit post on the IDon’tWorkHereLady subreddit described a man’s panic when he heard a voice and assumed that he had accidentally triggered the fire department call system.
“I laid on the profuse apologies for summoning her,” the man wrote. “But the person whose voice was coming out of a speaking near the floor had a different message for me.”
He explained that the woman on the line was looking to rent an apartment for a different complex.
“Apparently she had mistakenly called the elevator somehow,” he continued. “I had no idea that was possible. I tried telling her that she was talking to a random person in an elevator but she wouldn’t listen. She wanted to speak to a manager so I just left the elevator.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Utendahl via TikTok comment.
