I'm pretty sure that someone would have climbed down to get him after the first 24 hours.

I can imagine how badly that guy had to use the can.

well irina, it seems like nobody did.

any idea what the piano music is?

I've heard that music before somewhere, probably a movie. Maybe Requiem for a dream? I don't know. Anyone?

that would be horrible

Can you imagine having to listen to elevator music for that long?

He pulls apart the door like 12 times but, when he gets out, the elevator doesn't appear to move. Set-up? :P

It's time lapse footage

elevators have two sets of doors. he got the inside ones open, but theres another set...possibly even two that close the elevator shaft when the elevator is not there from the elevator lobby.

what is this song called ?

That would be a nightmare.....really. Not very nice at all.

i'm wondering why the lights in his elevator never turned off like the others.....seems staged to me.

Motion sensors in the elevator itself, perhaps?

how do you not go to the bathroom for 41 hours?... this is not real

intelligent life its possible to go without using the bathroom for that long but then again again how do you know that he didn't simply pee down the shaft or something and the just cut it out of the time lapse?

@ intelligent life: he had no food or drink in there, he'd just been on his break, he probably went then. but that would be pretty crap to be in a lift for 41 hours, he'd be pretty hungry i'd imagine

it is real, not staged, it was 41 hours, here is the story in the new yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/21/080421fa_fact_paumgarten?currentPage=all

damn i was stuck in 1 with 7 people for nearly 2 hours and it was HELL i would hate to have been him

"Nicholas White opened the doors to urinate. As he did so, he hoped, in vain, that a trace of this violation might get the attention of someone in the lobby."

I was stuck in an elevator for two hours on the day my son was born. I feel for that guy.

i bet he drank his pee and ate a shit loaf

I cant believe he didn't crack one out

To think that so many people checked on the other three elevators and not once was the fourth one checked on. Something wasn't right about that

THATS BS! That was more like.... 10 hours he didn't even pee, or sleep, and I think if you were in an elevator you would sleep a lot...

MUSIC : “The Storm Begins,” by Jennifer Haines

and, it really happened. you can read the story in the NY'er. He pee'ed down the shaft.

I've heard about this guy. It was an express elevator that didn't have any stops between the 1st and 30th floor. The elevator stopped around floor 13. There WERE no outer doors to open, just a blank wall (which is where he peed, it went down the crack between the wall and the elevator). He didn't sleep much because there was an ALARM going the entire time (and still no one came to help him). It's NOT a set up it DID happen.

I read the news article. It's a pretty scary story. He walked in with one life and walked out in a different one. He lost his job, his friends, his apartment, and any will to continue with his previous life. Tragic. They never even gave him a reason why the elevator stopped, or a decent settlement.

That's the stupidest shit I've ever cared to watch. How come the lights go out in all the OTHER elevators, but then NOT in the others... Wtf.

daaaaaang that must've been the worst. anyone have any links to any other stories on it?

Poor guy omg.

photoshoped

Here is full storry from new yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/21/080421fa_fact_paumgarten

why the hell wouldnt he just open the door and get out he opened the door like 20 time he could have just stepped out but hes a dumbass and just stayed in. what a retard. chuck norris would have just roundhouse kicked the doors off and left

@ why, please tell me you're kidding.

I would actually lose my mind in there. Can't believe he went 40 hours without cracking one off though.

in the butt

"Meanwhile, White no longer had his job, which he’d held for fifteen years, and lost all contact with his former colleagues. He lost his apartment, spent all his money, and searched, mostly in vain, for paying work. He is currently unemployed." I mean holy shit! This is a crazy story, everyone should read the whole article even though its like ten pages.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/21/080421fa_fact_paumgarten?currentPage=all

This guy is a zen master.

You'd have to wonder why they had those cameras put in if noone's watching them, or maybe the security guard was just a dick.

that is the best photoshopping I've ever seen. I mean they even faked an article in the New Yorker. Someone has too much time on their hands. Anyone that believes this is real probably thinks 9/11 wasn't an inside job, or the Loch Ness Monster is real. Next time make it an alien stuck in an elevator, and have the alien lose his job, and his alien wife and all his alien kids. Might as well make it funny if you're going to go through the effort of faking that video.

Alright alright, i can't resist commenting. the previous comments are hilarious. I didn't read the article, but i'm assuming, because i'm not a dimwitted twit, that they knew he was in there but couldn't reach him.

oh wow. i just read the story. i cannot believe the ending!! apparently the 8 guards and maintenance workers on watch just thought that the elevator was working fine, and every time people came into the camera room, all they saw was a man in an elevator and they never noticed anything funny (how boring can that job be anyway? i guess i'd forgive them.)

The man in the elevator became really bitter and didn't return to work because he wanted to pursue a lawsuit, and returning to work would undermine his trauma. so he actually is unemployed now. he never got an explanation for what happened and his life sucked for a really long time afterwards. and yes he peed down the shaft. he also didn't have a phone on him!!! poor guy.

Now that's an ADD column if I ever read one. Amazing story that would have been much better without all the crap filler.

i am black!

I would hate to be that guy, poor fella

another fake 40 hrs made up story! i will give fakin A for tat fairy

Wow. Fake!

I'd totally have a wank. u don't see him having a wank.

fake

Google it fuckwits.. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9501E1D81038F93BA15753C1A96F958260And then go fucking hang yourselves

theres another video of a guy trapped in elevator w/ diarrhea... very disgusting google it!

read the story about what this guy did after they got him out. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/21/080421fa_fact_paumgarten?currentPage=all towards the end, long article of which I only read the Nicholas White bits, but yeah. what a girl, he sues them for $25mil (obviously because he wants to retire early) and refuses to return to work because he was mentally scarred? i'll bet he spent the 100k he got in the settlement on booze and drugs. him and his patchouli stink.

Dis stoopid. Ain't no way dis happen even if dere are irrefutable evidence stating that, in fact, it did happened. *Rehashes things that have been said 100 times already in the comments above, but I wouldn't know that because I just skip straight to the comment box because I like bein' myself*

i saw something like this recently except that guy killed himself after spreading his feces all over the walls

Photoshopped!

why didn't he press the emergency button in the first place and if that didn't work why didn't anybody else check for faults in the elevator, its stupid really.