What was meant to be a fast, routine car wash became a stressful, caught-on-camera ordeal for Felicia Sullivan, who says she was trapped inside an automatic wash bay in Waynesboro, Virginia.
Sullivan shared video of the incident after finding herself stuck mid-cycle at the Waynesboro Water Works. In the footage, she sits inside her car while soap dries across the windshield, the bay doors stay shut, and the system appears to power down completely.
“I am trapped in the Waynesboro Water Works,” Sullivan says in one clip, her frustration rising. “I still have soap and everything all over this freaking car. All the doors are closed. Nothing has happened. It hasn’t rinsed the soap off.”
Sullivan said the lights went dark while the wash was still running and the system never signaled for her to pull forward. She also said she repeatedly pressed the emergency exit button, but the doors wouldn’t open.
“The door is stuck shut,” she says in the video. “I’m pushing the emergency button. The door is not opening. I cannot get out.”
As the minutes dragged on, Sullivan documented her growing worry, saying she called the business several times using numbers listed on-site and online — but couldn’t reach anyone.
“I’ve been trapped in here for about 20 minutes now,” she said in a later clip. “Nobody’s answering the phone. Nobody’s calling me back.”
She also raised concerns about safety inside the enclosed bay, warning that exhaust fumes were building up. Sullivan said she tried creeping her car forward and backward to trigger sensors and restart the wash cycle, but nothing changed.
Eventually, she contacted the Waynesboro Police Department’s non-emergency line for help. While filming, she noticed movement outside the bay and sounded relieved that someone was finally nearby.
“Are those feet?” she asked.
Not long after, Sullivan confirmed that assistance had arrived. “That’s the owner of the place and the cop that saved my life,” she said, laughing as the moment shifted from panic to relief.
The incident ended with an unexpected twist: Sullivan said the owner and the responding officer then walked her through another wash cycle — this time to rinse off the dried soap that was still stuck to her car.
The publication said it has reached out to Waynesboro Water Works and the Waynesboro Police Department for comment.
