Man accidentally gets trapped inside jewellery store vault in New York City, freed after 10 hours

In what could be termed a nightmare for claustrobhobic people, a 23-year-old man found himself locked up inside a steel-reinforced concrete jewelry vault in New York City's Diamond District and had to spend about 10 hours overnight inside the vault.

The firefighters had to halt their rescue attempt due to safety concerns, which led to the delay, the Washington Post reported.

It was the vault's timer mechanism that automatically opened on Wednesday morning, which eventually led to the rescue of the man.


The site of the incident was the World Diamond Tower, located at 580 Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan, where the man got trapped inside the vault when he was trying to access his safe deposit box.

“The process was started to breach the wall at the vault,” he said in a news conference at the scene.

The firefighting department took almost 10 hours to reach the steel plating of the vault but then decided to move further with their rescue operation at the point, according to Assistant Fire Chief John Sarrocco.

“The problem with the plating is we’d have to use our torches,” he said, “which would affect the environment for that person inside the vault.”

The doors opened as scheduled around 7 am, and the man was freed unharmed, Sarrocco said.

Though it was not attempted for the safety of the person trapped inside, the fire department’s rescue units had enough tools to break through the vault’s 30-inch (76-centimeter) steel-reinforced concrete walls, Sarrocco added.