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Trapped in the Big Apple store

Candace Lombardi
In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET.
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Candace Lombardi

Some New York City tourists apparently became trapped in the glass elevator at the new Apple store around 9 p.m. Thursday.

The elevator was stuck at street level, not below ground, so the young women were on display for Fifth Avenue passersby for about 45 minutes.

A friend of the trapped first reported the incident and included pictures on her blog.

While the actual elevator door intermittently opened and closed, the door to the elevator shaft remained shut, preventing anyone from exiting the glass tube. According to the blogger, the trapped tourists were more amused by the incident than afraid, and at one point began dancing about.

While waiting for help to arrive, Apple employees managed to climb a ladder and drop bottled water down through the roof of the elevator shaft.

The New York Police Department, working with Apple employees, was eventually able to lower and pry open the elevator so that the young women could escape. Two of the trapped did burn and blister their hands from the hot lights in the shaft while climbing out, but no one was seriously injured, according to the blog.