FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A Broward County courthouse employee became trapped in one the facility’s holding cells.
The employee, 61-year-old Deborah Johnson, was conducting an after-hours inspection when she locked herself inside the cell, Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., according to Assistant County Administrator Alphonso Jefferson.
Johnson exited the courtroom through the wrong door and ended up inside a nearby holding cell.
Without the code to get out and with no radio signal to call for help, she remained trapped for almost seven hours.
Once her cell phone had a stronger signal, she was able to text her daughter who then called 911.
During the emergency call, her daughter told the operator, “She said, ‘Call 911.’ She needs help.”
When the operator asked if her mother was alone, the daughter said, “Ma’am, I have no idea, so I tried calling her phone, but the reception is bad.”
“I’m just so confused because she should’ve been home at 4 p.m., and it’s almost 1:30 a.m.,” she said.
The woman was saved shortly after the call. Though shaken, she was not hurt.
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