right so i'm going to try and keep this short and not ramble

so yesterday me, my mate James and his girlfriend went to woodfield mall to do a spot of shopping. parking like we usually do at the top of the parking garage in front of gameworks and head out to wander about. having tired of the shops at the streets, we decided to return to our cars and drive over to the main mall. now, this is where things go sideways and shit gets interesting. we arrive back at the car park and proceed to enter elevator shaft east #1 to travel the three stories back to our cars. just as we reach the about where the third floor stop should have been, a awful metal wrenching sound was heard along with one side of the elevator car itself buckling inwards towards us, the car lurches to a stop, and proceeded to bend the elevator car in further. it is at this point, i asked the permission to say "cock". door open button? nothing, emergency stop button? pressed, alarm button? surprisingly ineffective. as soon as my finger leaves the alarm button the elevator shutters and falls an indeterminate distance, however the floor count changes from 3 to 2 in the process. my mate lights a square i dial 911 and tell him to try and get the doors open. no luck on the doors, we're in what i learned later, the elevator industry call the "death trap" elevator. basically one that locks both the inner and outer doors of the shaft when the car is in motion preventing us from escaping. roof hatch? nope blocked or latched shut. time passes slowly, we ask the 911 operator the ETA on the fire department. the car falls again as we are in contact with the fire department over the call box in the elevator, who at the time were actually outside by this point. the elevator made so much noise they thought that we had fallen all the way down the shaft. the fire department then lowers the elevator back to the first floor by lowering the pressure in the hydraulic system, which cause the remainder of the elevator shaft above us to come crashing down onto the car itself.

we got out alright, but it could have been so much worse. so, here's a tip...

take the stairs

cliffs: went to mall with friends, took a elevator, shit broke on the way up and nearly killed us as if fell back down, i owe the fire department cookies

dang. glad to hear everything turned out okay.

The first mistake james made was going to the mall with someone who calls him his mate while not being in Australia.

i just got done watching 6 hours worth of top gear when i wrote that... it affected my vernacular

you sat through 6hrs of something in one sitting?

fuck dude i had the same shit happen to me at the auto show...no dropping or falling flights er anything tho. we were just stuck in there for like an hr anda half.

it was fun cuz we were beatin our one buddy up cuz he wouldnt shutup about how scared he was.

my biotch freakd out cuz i calld her and said "hey, ...yea so were stuck here in the elevator and..." click. my battery died.
haha she thought i was gone.

fuck technology. shits dangerous.

yeah man, it's not fun, at all. rationally you know that it's only 3 stories, and that chances are you won't die if it fell [break some shit prolly, but not fatal] however once that car starts to fall, even a little bit, that 3 story elevator shaft feels like it's 50 stories.

the main reason i posted this here, is because i know about 90% of this forum has been on the exact elevator this happened in

just... take the stairs as woodfield, the elevator maintenance there is lackluster at best

Fuck 911, Id be on the phone with my lawyer.

the elevator in my building drops a foot or two every time it gets to the top of the shaft, then goes back to the top and the doors open

lol. whenever you bring people who haven't been in it, they freak out haha

Glad I don't park in the parking garages.

Wow glad that you got out of that ok. I got stuck in a elevator once. I was stuck in there for a few minutes. Till one of my manager heard me yelling. He opened the upper elevator door, and went through the escape hatch. I wasn't scared at all since the elevator type was a hydraulic type. Even if the elevator were to fall, it would fall slowly and it was only two floors. Whenever I'm at Streets and park in the garage I usually just take the stairs anyways. Those elevators take forever.

wrong place, wrong time....glad your ok though