My first job was at an escape room. Apart from my boss believing he could control women’s minds and constantly throwing stuff at me to try to get me to scream, one of the rooms I ran was called “The Kidnapping” and the first puzzle involved putting the participants in blindfolds and fake handcuffs that were attached with weak magnets to a bed frame. Lots of dads thought this was a perfect opportunity to exercise their self-defense training and try to physically subdue me; lots of moms thought I was their dom for a BDSM session. Cops in particular liked busting out their own handcuff keys to free themselves from cuffs that didn’t actually lock.

SO many people would physically destroy props rather than solve them, under the logic that if it could be broken, it should be broken… they’d get so upset with me for saying “please do not smash the treasure chest”. Everything was constantly being repaired because it would get snapped in half or cut into with knives. Intelligent people simply do not attend escape rooms.