Escape Room Closes After Locksmith Solves Every Puzzle in Under Two Minutes

Downtown escape room venue Enigma Chamber has temporarily closed for 'security upgrades' after a visiting locksmith solved all four of its themed rooms in a combined time of seven minutes and twelve seconds, bypassing every puzzle mechanism by directly manipulating the locks. The locksmith, competitive lock picker Irene Rake, visited the facility with three friends on Saturday evening. Staff became concerned approximately ninety seconds into the first room — 'The Pharaoh's Tomb' — when the team emerged having never examined a single hieroglyphic clue. 'She walked in, looked at the padlocks, and started picking them,' said Enigma Chamber owner Colin Riddle. 'I watched on the camera. She didn't read any of the scrolls. She didn't touch the sarcophagus puzzle. She just went lock to lock with a tension wrench and a hook pick. The pharaoh's curse was supposed to take an hour.' Rake then proceeded through 'The Mad Scientist's Lab' (1 minute 48 seconds), 'The Haunted Library' (2 minutes 3 seconds), and 'The Bank Heist' (1 minute 41 seconds). During the bank heist room, she also opened a combination safe that contained the final clue by exploiting a manufacturing tolerance in the dial mechanism. 'It was a Liberty Safe with factory settings,' Rake said. 'The gate on wheel three had about four numbers of play. That's not a puzzle. That's a warranty issue.' Riddle has announced that all locks in the facility will be replaced with 'mechanisms that cannot be picked,' a claim Rake described as 'aspirational.' 'I offered to consult on their security,' Rake said. 'They declined. I think they're going to switch to electronic locks, which is fine, but I should mention that I also do electronics.' Enigma Chamber expects to reopen next month with what Riddle is calling 'locksmith-proof puzzles,' though he declined to elaborate on what that means.