I got locked inside my Uncle’s house for a while tonight. Yes, inside. My brother thought I’d be able to open the door from the inside. I warned him I didn’t think so, but he closed it anyway. Sure enough, the door requires a key from both sides. All of the entrance doors in the house do, in fact.
We tried the few keys we were given for quite a while, but couldn’t get them to work. My parents said at least one should be a copy of the working keys, but they had had trouble with them as well. We checked the windows, but those are barred or too small. But there’s another door off of the attic to a balcony that we hadn’t been able to open before. I used my phone’s flashlight to navigate the dark attic to the door, moving stuff out of the way as necessary. The door, of course, was locked for both sides, but after a little looking around I luckily saw some keys on a surface nearby, and they worked when I tried them in the door.
I got out on the balcony and had my brother get out the extension ladder. It was a little difficult to clamber over the railing to get on the ladder, but I was able to manage, and escape to freedom.
Getting stuck in a house normally wouldn’t be too bad, but this house hasn’t been lived in for years and, as a hoarder house, is somewhat gross and has pretty bad air quality. I was wearing a dust mask and gloves the whole time. I worried I’d be stuck in there until my brother went 45 minutes to my parents’ house and back to get their keys. A little effort and luck avoided that trip.