A United States Postal Service driver documented a frightening situation she found herself in while delivering mail in a viral TikTok.
User @mellymelssssss recorded herself being stuck in a home’s entranceway after a gate locked behind her while she was delivering a package. Unsure of how to open the gate or disengage the lock, as there was no door handle or mechanism to do so, she enlisted the help of co-workers to extricate her from the entryway and had to rely on the kindness of a neighbor to finally leave.
@mellymelssssss Yesterday just wasn’t my day #usps #fyp #delivery #malibu ♬ Locked Up – Akon
“All right so I came to deliver a package and I was putting it at the front door,” the TikToker says in the clip. “I put it down and I turned around and I heard this door just lock.”
She then points her camera out through the gate to show a parked car and traffic driving by on the road. “So I’m freaking stuck at this person’s house they’re not answering their doorbell I’m knocking, knocking, nothing,” she says. She knocks on the door as she says this and speaks to the camera. No one comes to the door to her aid.
The USPS employee said she had to ask her co-worker to come to her location and help her out so they could ring the doorbell from outside the gate.
“So he had to ring it for me from the outside. It’s a RING they didn’t even answer that,” she says. “And I called my supervisor and he’s gonna come but we’ll see if the fire department will come or somebody will come home. But I’m stuck. I just want to go home now and I barely started this route.”
Melly continues, “Today is not my day I want to cry.” The video then cuts to her looking around the small enclosure in which she is still stuck in. She knocks on the door again and then shows that the gate doesn’t have a knob or handle for her to try and open, just a lock on both sides. At this point in the clip, the video then transitions to a time-lapse shot taken from the floor, which shows her looking out of the gate.
Her supervisor then arrives and attempts to open the door. Melly writes in a text overlay, “Then my supervisor came to try and see if he can open it, he also tried to go ask the neighbors to call the owners of the house.”
He was unsuccessful, which then prompted the arrival of another co-worker who tried to pry the door open, but that didn’t work either.
Finally, a neighbor was able to get into contact with the homeowner who gave her a code to the garage. The neighbor entered the home and guided Melly through it, and she was able to go on with her day, finally freed from the enclosure.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Melly via TikTok comment and USPS via email for further comment.
TikTokers expressed their sympathy and second-hand fear for Melly after viewing her video.
“Just imagine in a case of emergency such a fire . That’s scary,” one user wrote. Another said, “The second I realized I was trapped, I would have to go to the bathroom lol. That’s scary, glad you got out safely.”
Others said it was good that she kept her phone on her and that if they were in her situation they would have definitely notified the police and fire department due to the hazardous nature of the door’s locking mechanism.
Some remarked that they would’ve certainly held a grudge against the house, with one user writing, “They would never get a package from me again. That should be illegal.”
