Burglar can’t escape — that’s the point

When it comes to protecting one’s business from burglars, novelty “escape rooms” seem to have cornered the market in this branch of risk management, as one alleged perpetrator in Vancouver, Washington, learned this month.

Cropping up coast to coast, escape rooms are amusement adventures that force participants to solve several riddles and puzzles to escape, which proved too difficult for the man who broke into NW Escape Experience and had to call 911 to get out, according to media reports.

"Our initial reaction when we received the call was obviously worst-case scenario," owner Tamara Bertrand told CBS News. When they arrived at the storefront business, “all we could do was laugh," Bertrand told a reporter.

The man allegedly stole a prop beer used in one of the escape rooms, a TV remote and a non-working cellphone, she told CBS. Upon his trying to leave the scene, "we believe he forgot how he got into our space," she said. 

Trapped, the man "got scared and called 911" from the business’s phone, she said.