Living alone has a myriad of benefits but also a handful of issues. Sure you get to be as loud as you want, cook in the nude, and always know where the bread is but you always have to kill bugs yourself, and do all the cleaning, and if you lock yourself out you can’t rely on your roommate to let you back in. This viral TikTok exhibits the extreme end of those downfalls.
Jon Smith locked his keys and phone in his apartment one night and decided to walk to a nearby store hoping to use their phone to call the police and get back in. Unfortunately for him, rather than a simple phone call that let him back into his house, he was arrested and fined over five hundred dollars.
To be clear, this isn’t the typical trajectory when you are locked out of your home, but in Jon’s case, the police had not one, not two, but thirteen warrants out for his arrest. He later followed up to say that the majority of them were for missing court dates that would’ve dismissed those charges.
Commenters weren’t the most sympathetic, many were exasperated that Jon decided to call the police instead of a locksmith to help him back into his home. Unlike the average comment section, many people were laughing at how little they could relate to this particular scenario. They were especially baffled that he could have so many warrants out for his arrest and no one was doing anything about it. “What are you people doing to get warrants? Like how do you get a warrant and not even know?” someone commented.
Jon was quick to point out that it was the middle of the night and he didn’t really have the option of calling a locksmith because it was so late. He also said that he had called 911 for the fire department, not the police.
If you ever find yourself in the same situation, Ernie’s Lock recommends first trying all of the doors and windows to see if there may be an alternative way in. If that doesn’t work, the next step would be to locate someone that may have a key, like a landlord, neighbor, or partner. In a pinch, there are various other methods to breaking your way into your home like locating tools to remove the doorknob or using a credit card to slide open the lock. If none of these quick fixes work, call a locksmith. Calling 911 should be the last resort in this scenario, especially if you have several warrants out for your arrest.
Jon’s story is a not-so-subtle reminder to double, triple, and quadruple-check your pockets for your phone and your keys before you leave your house. And maybe double-check for any arrest warrants too.