Trapped in Waterstones: American tourist locked in London book store after hours

David Wills from Texas took to social media in his attempts to escape the Waterstones book store in Trafalgar Square

Trapped in a Waterstones (Dave Wills/Instagram)

American tourist David Wills found himself trapped in a London Waterstones late last night after staff closed up shop whilst he was still perusing the shelves on the second floor.

Using social media, Wills reported on his after-hours adventure at the Trafalgar Square book shop. He said on Twitter that he had been upstairs for about 15 minutes before discovering that the store had been closed, and he was locked inside of it.

After one hour stuck in the store, he posted on Instagram a picture of the locked door, saying "supposedly someone is on their way."

At 11pm, two hours after the store had been closed, the Texan tourist tweeted to the official Waterstones account, pleading to be let out.

Wills looked set to spend the night with the Waterstones collection, with the book chain’s social media team having clocked off for the day at 5:30pm, before the Metropolitan Police came to his rescue at 11.20pm.

At 00:15am, the official Waterstones Twitter account said: “We're pleased to announce that David Wills is a free man once more. Thanks for your concern and tweets!”

Ten minutes later, Wills closed the book on his night at Waterstones, tweeting: “I’m free.”

The Metropolitan Police said they had been contacted about a man trapped at the store, likely one of the many people on social media following Wills’ travails.

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Throughout the night, Twitter users voiced their support for Wills, with journalist Gaby Hinsliff tweeting: “Need my bed but can barely sleep till I know the Waterstones One is free. Poor David Wills. Hope they give him a book token to make up for it.”

The Piccadilly branch of Waterstones saw the funny side of things, and promised Wills they would “mock” the Trafalgar Square store mercilessly.