Woman Tells Her Boss She Won't Be in for Work with Video of Her Unable to Open Apartment Door (Exclusive)
Rylee Meagan tells PEOPLE how a broken door latch turned into a viral TikTok seen by millions
Ashley Vega
Fri, February 6, 2026 at 9:49 PM UTC
3 min read
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Rylee Meagan
NEED TO KNOW
Rylee Meagan recorded herself trapped inside her apartment while running late for work
When texting her boss to say she couldn't come in, Meagan recorded a video of her trying to open the door to her apartment
The video was meant as proof, but unexpectedly resonated with millions online
Rylee Meagan went to leave for work one morning when she unexpectedly found herself trapped inside her apartment.
She was scheduled to be at work at 5:30 a.m. when she realized she wasn’t going anywhere. “I went to unlock the latch lock on our apartment door to leave, and it wouldn’t open,” Rylee tells PEOPLE.
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At first, she assumed it was a quick fix. After pulling harder and closer inspection, it became clear the door wasn’t budging. That’s when the frustration set in. “My biggest thought in that moment was ‘of course!’ because there are several things wrong with this apartment,” she says.
Time moved quickly as the minutes ticked past her start time. She tugged, pushed and tried again, hoping the latch would give. After nearly 10 minutes, she was officially late, still inside and running out of options.
Instead of continuing to fight the door, she reached for her phone. After struggling for several minutes, she knew the explanation would sound questionable without proof. “It could be the truth, or it could be an excuse for waking up late,” she explains.
She recorded the moment plainly, documenting the stuck latch and her growing disbelief. The TikTok text spelled it out: she was late because she was literally trapped in her apartment.
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At the time, the video was meant to be used as an explanation to her boss, or at the very least, a laugh with coworkers. Rylee ended up not needing the video at all. She logged her reason for being late, and no one asked for further explanation.
Still, she shared the clip with a few coworkers who found it funny. Her shift lead didn’t even recognize it was her until seeing it later on TikTok.
That’s when the story shifted. What was meant for a handful of people suddenly started reaching far more. Rylee posted the video after work, expecting modest engagement. “I expected it to get maybe 300 views max,” she says.
Instead, the video took off while she was busy with her second job. By the time she checked again, it had already reached 500,000 views.
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The momentum didn’t slow. A few days later, the video crossed one million views, then climbed to 1.4 million. “When I saw the 1.4M on the thumbnail, my jaw dropped,” she says. The scale of it all felt hard to process.
It wasn’t just the numbers that surprised her. It was the way people saw themselves in her morning.
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The comments were filled with similar stories of people trapped by broken doors, blocked exits and inaccessible stairwells. That shared frustration became part of the appeal. “It’s weird to think about a million other people with lives and villages watching my video,” she says. But that shared experience is what she enjoyed most.
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Not all feedback was sympathetic — some viewers offered advice that missed the mark. “I want people to know that I know I can’t open a door that’s blocked by my foot,” she says, responding to some of the criticisms she received. Meagan insisted that the latch lock was the issue, and pressing the door inward was the only way to free it.
Read the original article on People