On Valentine’s Day, Amanda Carpenter was briefly stuck in an elevator at the BWI Airport Amtrak station when she tweeted about her plight: “Guys. I’m trapped in an amtrak elevator at Bwi airport. Help?”
The government-subsidized rail service finally inquired about her welfare on Wednesday, nearly 7 months later.
“@amandacarpenter We are sorry to hear that. Are you still in the elevator?” asked the official Amtrak Twitter account in a tweet at 10:48 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 7.
“Oh, my thank you for this but I was trapped months ago. Like last February. Thanks for checking…? Ha,” answered Ms. Carpenter, a former Ted Cruz presidential campaign staffer who is now a CNN contributor and Conservative Review columnist.
That’s when Amtrak explained, “@amandacarpenter Someone just re-tweeted it. Wanted to make sure. Glad you’re out :)”
Of course, that reply from the rail service set off a few quips from snarky followers poking fun at Amtrak’s competence and transparency, or lack thereof.
“[S]o you’re NOT still in the elevator 200+ days later?” joked one woman.
“[T]hey must thought it was a FOIA tweet,” said a follower from Nevada.
Full disclosure: Ms. Carpenter briefly worked for The Washington Times as a columnist from April 2009 to February 2010.