Chaos as Man Wakes Up To Find Stairs to His Apartment Missing: ‘Stranded’

A man has left TikTok users in hysterics after revealing the unusual reason why he was temporarily stranded in his second-floor apartment.

When Elijah Menchaca heard construction work going on outside, he assumed it must have been happening nearby to his home in Kentucky. However, when he drew the blinds and looked outside, he was horrified to realize the construction was actually happening on his building and that the stairs leading up to his apartment were completely gone.

Menchaca had no idea it was happening in advance, as the building management had emailed his roommate. He was certainly caught by the surprise by the sudden lack of escape route, telling Newsweek that it “was a wild experience” to think he was trapped in his own home.

Since he couldn’t leave the house and go anywhere else, Menchaca took to TikTok (@phoenixagent003) to share his unbelievable ordeal online. With the footage showing a large drop where the stairs would usually be, Menchaca joked that he was “stranded” until they were eventually restored.

The video, which was posted on May 21, has left social media users in stitches, leading to more than 2.7 million views and over 248,800 likes on TikTok.

“The reactions been interesting, as there were a lot of people commiserating, and others making Ed, Edd, and Eddy references,” Menchaca said. “But The Sims jokes have been my personal favorites.

“There was also a lot of people calling for me to take legal action, which I sort of get, but also, I don’t think the benefit to effort ratio is at all worth it. It was definitely an interesting few hours, but ultimately nothing went catastrophically wrong in that time.”

The original stairs were removed as they were quite old and it was evidently time for a refresh. So, after a few hours of waiting and wondering when he could leave the house again, Menchaca was delighted to finally see the new stairs being put in place later that day.

While he posted about the situation online to pass the time and make light of the unexpected ordeal, Menchaca never expected his clip to go viral and generate so much attention. As it turns out, TikTok users became invested, and many were desperate to find out what happened after.

Much to their delight, Menchaca shared a follow-up video explaining that the stairs were replaced later that day, and he was no longer trapped in his home. He even granted people a first look at the new stairs which were worth the wait.

When Menchaca posted on TikTok joking that “they took my stairs,” he probably wasn’t expecting it to interest millions of people, let alone for his video to generate over 5,500 comments. Many people were full of questions about the logistics, while others were quick to make light of the situation.

One comment reads: “How is your roommate gonna get home?”

Another person wrote: “I feel like The Sims are becoming so real sometimes, like u wake up and suddenly stairs are gone.”

Another commenter joked: “Sounds like someone is playing the Sims with your life.”

While one TikToker responded: “please DoorDash some food and tell us how they deliver it!”

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