I Locked Myself in the Bathroom

OK, this happened a while ago, but I shared this incident with one of my friends and she said I should share it with everyone. Please don't judge me...

Well, first, I must say that I usually never close the door when I'm showering, just so it doesn't get too steamy. I figure I'm alone and it seemed unnecessary. I also never close it when I am just using the bathroom; just don't see the need. Anywho, I closed the door all the way today AND I GOT LOCKED INSIDE!! I wasn't really scared, just annoyed. I started taking a shower and the water wasn't as hot as I wanted it to be, so in order to increase the temperature in my apartment is to adjust it on the thermostat. So after closing the door all the way, I realized I couldn't get out. So I quickly showered and dried off. I tried to turn the handle again and it was locked. Then I saw this pin near the handle and I pushed it in, pulled it, jiggled it and nothing. I figured it was the door lock, but I didn't know how to unlock it. I felt like I was picking a lock into a safe, but there was no correct combination.

I had no idea what to do. I didn't understand why the door would be locked from the inside?

So I'm freaking because I was in there for an hour. I was supposed to meet my South African friends in an hour, so I felt silly. Then I started looking for something to slip in the jam so I could attempt to unlock it that way and nothing was working. I don't have any tools; let alone tools in the bathroom. Finally I said I'm just going to rip the handle off the door. I was bending it and twisting it and it took a while but I finally got it off. I didn't really want to do it that way because then I would just have this doorknob to fix, but I really just wanted to put some clothes on.

But once I saw what was inside with the inside handle off, I still couldn't get it open because of the handle on the outside. So I have this mop/broom thing in the corner of my bathroom to wash/clean the floor and I took the handle apart and started jamming it through the hole where the handle was. After a few minutes of mindless pounding I got the handle on the other side to fall off so the only part left was the actual deadbolt or striker or whatever it's called. The mechanism itself was still in the lock position and I still couldn't get out.

Then I swear I heard someone knocking on the door to my apartment because I was making so much noise. Then I felt stupid. If someone would have called or came to my door, they still wouldn't've been able to get in my apartment because my phone was on my table so I couldn't answer it and the front door to my apartment was locked so no one would be able to enter. Finally I took the fallen off inside handle and started monkeying around with the lock. After a couple minutes of trying to pry it out, I got it to open a little and I got out.

I felt so stupid and I was late meeting my friends. Obviously I had to tell them this story because I was half an hour late, so they go a good kick out of it.

I didn't damage the door too much, but now I have to find a new door handle...at least I have a year to do it.