Isn’t it a fantasy of most people to find a hidden room or closet in your house? The mystery! The excitement! Well, that very thing became a reality for a very confused New Yorker, who discovered a whole apartment behind the mirror in her bathroom. Samantha Hartsoe was just like any other New Yorker, working hard and trying to pay her bills in an increasingly hostile city for renters. But her story is a unique one. She documented the entire discovery on Tiktok for the world to see, and the video went viral.
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A Cold Bathroom Garners Interest
Samantha lives in a three-bedroom apartment with two other roommates on Roosevelt Island. All was well and good among the roommates, until this past weekend when Samantha came back from a hiking trip and noticed that her bathroom was excessively cold.
This was confusing to the 26-year-old, since Samantha’s bathroom doesn’t have a vent in it that blows cold air. She looked around, and eventually found out that the cold air was coming from a draft that originated over her bathroom mirror.
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Her Curiosity Was Piqued
At first, Samantha wasn’t too concerned, given that the mirror was merely hanging on the wall and not attached to it. The cold air was concerning to her, though, and eventually she pulled the mirror down to discover a hole in the wall behind it!
Beyond the hole in the wall, Samantha could see that there was a small cubby space that led to another room. Her curiosity was piqued, and Samantha decided to investigate her discovery, despite her roommates urging her not to do anything.
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Necessary Precautions
Despite her roommates caution, Samantha was determined to go into the space and discover what was beyond. She decided to take some precautions, though. She strapped on a dust mask and grabbed a hammer for protection before she climbed through the hole – just in case.
The Tiktok video series shows Samantha climbing backwards through the wall to get into the space. Her entire body only barely fits through the hole, but once she’s through she takes her phone from her roommate and goes to explore. Only after making John (her roommate) promise he’ll stay there the whole time, though.
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Immediate Complications
After she got through the wall completely, Samantha immediately realized there might be complications with her adventure. For starters, the hole that she had just climbed through was likely too high for her to climb back through on the other side of the wall, meaning that she would need to find somewhere else to leave, if another exit existed.
Still, she was determined to discover what she had discovered behind her bathroom mirror. She turned on her headlamp and turned to start exploring, making her roommate promise to call someone if he hadn’t heard from her in more than five minutes.
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A Viral Discovery
What Samantha found beyond the wall blew her expectations away. Not only was there a small room behind her bathroom mirror, but as she filmed her discovery for Tiktok, she discovered that there was an entire apartment hidden back behind the wall.
The space was a full three-bedroom apartment with its windows open, which is what was causing the cold draft into Samantha’s bathroom. She continued to explore cautiously as she made her way deeper into the home, keeping her camera on and looking all ways to ensure that she wasn’t going to stumble on someone surprising.
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Emptier and Emptier
She didn’t need to be concerned, though. At first, it appeared that there were some small signs of life in the apartment. The floor was covered in trash bags and she even discovered an empty water bottle that seemed like it had been left there recently.
As Samantha explored, she realized that the apartment appeared to be stripped and uninhabitable.The shower and bathroom area was all piping without a true bath or shower, and the floor throughout the place was all ripped up. Samantha wasn’t sure if the place was being renovated or just abandoned, but it was clearly not someone’s current home.
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Leaving Was Easier Than Going In
Finding her way out of the new apartment posed some challenges as well. There was, indeed, a front door to the apartment that Samantha was able to open and exit out of. However, unlike some Tiktok users believed, the front door did not open next to Samantha’s apartment, but to an entirely different part of her building altogether.
Samantha had to make her way through the entirety of her apartment building in order to make it back to her place. Once she was back, though, she was able to cover the hole again with her mirror and breathe a huge sigh of relief. And then take a shower.
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The Landlords Didn’t Know, Either!
The video of the discovery became more widespread than Samantha or her roommates ever could have imagined. The fascinating discovery was compounded by the fact that not only did Samantha and her roommates not know about the secret apartment, but her building management didn’t seem to know either!
When Samantha reached out to her landlord to inform them of her discovery, management was confused, as they were unaware of an abandoned apartment beyond their current tenant’s living space. They assured Samantha that they would investigate, and make decisions about the apartment once they gathered more information.
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A Surprising Change to Samantha’s Life
Samantha, however, is now an internet sensation. In the days since her discovery went viral online, she’s been contacted for multiple interviews with news outlets including the BBC. She told them that she couldn’t believe this video had gone as viral as it had, and that she wasn’t sure what to do with all her new followers online.
The question of the apartment behind the wall still remains, too. After building management investigates, what will become of the space? Will they board up the wall behind Samantha’s mirror and close off the apartment? Will they renovate and try to rent it out to someone new? A question for the next viral video.
