A tourist from Texas in search of free Wi-Fi found himself locked inside a bookstore in London. Social media came to his rescue.

According to Mashable, Dallas resident David Willis stepped inside Waterstones bookstore just before 9 p.m. He says he went upstairs to use the free Wi-Fi but when he came back about 15 minutes later, the lights were off downstairs and the door was locked.

Willis posted a dark and grainy photo on Instagram to illustrate his predicament. He said by that point, he’d been trapped for over an hour. He triggered a security alarm and had talked to police. Someone was supposedly on the way to free him.

Another hour passed. Willis took to Twitter to make a direct plea to Waterstones.

Social media picked up on the tourist’s bookstore nightmare and began sharing his posts with the hashtag #waterstonestexan.

The social media S.O.S. finally worked, when an employee of the bookstore saw the posts. Willis was freed a little after midnight.

Waterstones and another bookstore in town offered humorous responses to the incident on their own Twitter accounts.

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Julian Conley listens during opening statements in his trial at Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025. The 25-year-old is accused of fatally shooting 8-year-old Secoriea Turner in July 2020. (Abbey Cutrer/AJC)

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