Woman Dismisses Small Crack in Ceiling of New Apartment. Weeks Later, She Hears a ‘Chilling’ Sound Before It Collapses

Virginia Worthington was excited for a summer in New York City. What she didn’t expect was a classic N.Y.C. headache: a serious apartment problem.

After finishing finals at Auburn University, Worthington, 22, moved to the city for a summer internship. She and three college friends subleased a fully furnished, lofted apartment with two bedrooms and one bathroom.

Worthington and her friend Merrin took the first-floor bedroom — a choice Worthington now says they “could have never anticipated what a poor decision that would be.”

About a month after they moved in, she noticed a small crack in the ceiling that seemed to branch out from the overhead light. At first, it didn’t feel urgent.

“It, very slowly, progressively grew longer and longer as the days went on,” she says. “But in a way, it was like watching a toddler grow… the daily growth is so minute it’s almost undetectable.”

Things felt more alarming once the ceiling began to bubble. Worthington says it didn’t look wet, but instead looked “as if something from above was weighing it down.”

They contacted building management and maintenance, sending photos with the email subject line: “URGENT!”

On the day the ceiling ultimately collapsed, Worthington says she received a response saying maintenance would come by to fix it. The roommates went to work expecting it would be handled before they returned.

But when they got home, she says the ceiling was already crumbling onto their bed.

“We arrived home from work to a ceiling that was beginning to crumble into our bed,” Worthington recalls. The roommates started moving whatever they could out of the room, trying to stay ahead of what seemed inevitable.

As the cracking intensified, Worthington set up her phone to record. Then, as they were about to move the furniture, she says she and Merrin heard a deep, unsettling rumble.

“Merrin and I heard a chilling grumble from the ceiling and ran out of the doorway just in time for a total collapse,” she says.

Worthington says she’s grateful they weren’t asleep when it happened. She recalls watching a massive brick fall onto the bed — right where their heads would have been.

“The ceiling plaster was so thick and heavy that we were hardly able to shove it out of the way to close the door so that the fumes didn’t infiltrate the whole apartment,” she says.

Worthington later posted a video of the collapse to TikTok, where it drew 2.4 million views.

Afterward, she says they learned the ceiling had been a recurring issue. Rather than fully repairing it, she claims the maintenance team repeatedly covered cracks with plaster until the buildup became dangerously heavy — and ultimately collapsed, not because of water damage this time, but due to the weight.

She also describes a difficult experience trying to get help and clear answers from building staff.

“The superintendent of our building was sent up to help,” she says. “He told many contradicting stories about how this had happened previously, then backtracked when we pressed further.”

Worthington says a bag of jewelry had been left behind in the room because they couldn’t remove everything in time. She says they asked the superintendent to retrieve it — and that when he returned, the bag was filled with dirt and plaster.

“He came back holding the bag, now filled with dirt and plaster and filth, laughing at my devastation,” she recalls.

Worthington says the company that rented them the apartment covered a hotel stay while repairs were underway. Once the ceiling was fixed, the roommates moved back in for the rest of their sublease — but kept a close watch on the ceiling the entire time.