Man Spends 20 Minutes Arguing With Automatic Door That Refuses To Open

Security cameras have given us many gifts. This week’s greatest gift: 20 minutes of footage showing a man engaged in an increasingly personal conflict with an automatic sliding door at a supermarket in Manchester, England. The door, for reasons that remain unclear, simply would not open for him. And he, for reasons that are also somewhat unclear, simply would not stop trying.

The Escalation

The footage begins with a standard approach. He walks toward the door confidently. The door doesn’t open. He stops. Tries again, slower. Still nothing. Then come the techniques: waving arms (3 minutes), jumping (2 minutes), approaching from different angles (4 minutes), approaching while holding items from a nearby display in case the sensor “needed something to detect” (honestly brilliant problem-solving), and — the crown jewel — a full 4-minute period during which he simply stood very still in front of the door, possibly hoping it would eventually notice him out of sheer pity.

The Resolution

Another shopper eventually walked up behind him, pressed the manual button located approximately 6 inches to the right of the door sensor, and walked through. The man stared at the button for a long moment. Then he walked through too.

The Internet’s Take

“This man went through every stage of grief with a door,” reads the top comment. “Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. In 20 minutes.”