Woman reveals trick that saved her from creepy hotel ordeal
A teen has revealed a trick that she believes saved her life during a terrifying ordeal at a hotel.
Josie Bowers, 19, posted a series of TikTok videos about the "scariest experience of her life" when she was on a family holiday in the US state of Maryland when she was 15.
"I was staying in Ocean City, at the Hilton, right there on the waterfront, and I went to go shower as the rest of my family was down at the beach. I was by myself," she said in a video describing the incident.
"Before I could shower I heard these noises, I went to go see what it was and it was this contraption. I was just standing there in my towel and this man opened the door."
She shared a video showing the device the man slid under the door – a long piece of wire with a hook on the end.
"Always use the deadbolt! Scariest experience of my life," she said.
Ms Bowers told her followers it happened quickly and she didn't have time to make the decision to grab the contraption.
"My main thought was holy s*** I'm in a towel right now and someone is about to break in and get me," she said.
"So the door opens a crack, and I just slammed it back shut. And put the deadbolt on."
She said in her TikTok the person trying to get in claimed to be there to fix the door.
"So they tell me, 'your key card is broken and we need to get into the room and fix your keypad for you'. And so I open the door a tad bit, to see if it was a worker," she said.
"It clearly wasn't, they were in jeans and a T-shirt. Hilton keeps it pretty classy, not the attire."
Act teen claims saved her life
Ms Bowers said her stepfather was a police officer and she remembered he told her to never let people know if she was alone.
"I yelled, 'Hey dad, there's someone here to fix the door'," she said.
"As soon as they thought that I wasn't alone, and potentially my dad was there. They ran, they were gone."
The teen said she now urged people to always use deadbolts when in a hotel or university dorm room.
"I'm glad I had this experience so I can teach people about it," she said.
"Obviously I'm safe but it could have ended up a lot worse. Be safe, you can get door stoppers, always put on the deadbolt."
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