Texas Man Locked in Bank Vault for Hours After Pranksters Forget Combination

An Allstate Insurance employee in Arlington, Texas, was locked for hours in a 10-foot x 10-foot vault last week when a prank by his fellow co-workers went wrong.

According to Arlington fire spokesman Lt. Kevin Seeton, the jokesters thought they had the combination to the vault when they shut the man inside, but "apparently they didn't," the Star-Telegram reported Seeton saying.

A locksmith was called but couldn't open the vault, at which point the fire department stepped in with power tools to get through the 1-foot thick concrete wall. The process of freeing the man took more than two hours.

The Star-Telegram reported special operations battalion chief Randy Schmelz saying they train for stuff like this but it's "a once-in-a-career type thing."

In total, the man was trapped for three hours and was released by 10:30 p.m.

CBS Local out of Dallas-Fort Worth reported the office owner Jeff Hemenz calling the incident a "stupid accident."

Believe it or not, this isn't the first time such an incident has occurred. In December, a teenager in Pryor, Okla., was accidentally locked inside an old bank vault. The local fire department had to cut a hole for her to crawl out of as well.

Featured image via Shutterstock.com.