--- title: Man Opens Front Door to Brick Wall Built Overnight description: A German man opened his front door on Monday to leave his house only to find out that he had been walled in overnight. canonical: https://time.com/4622072/brick-wall-prank/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-04T19:30:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:39:54.350Z og:title: This Man Opens His Front Door to Find Himself Walled In og:description: Officials don't know if someone built the wall as a prank, dare, or revenge. og:url: https://time.com/4622072/brick-wall-prank/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf4b680ec88b27744/6988b4638fd2ee04663554f7/german-man-walled-in.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Saint Michael Choir School in Bond Street. Edwardian og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Man Opens His Front Door to Find Himself Walled In twitter:description: Officials don't know if someone built the wall as a prank, dare, or revenge. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf4b680ec88b27744/6988b4638fd2ee04663554f7/german-man-walled-in.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Man Opened His Front Door to Find Himself Completely Walled In > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME The Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition The Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The day's top headlines, curated by TIME editors. The Brief brings TIME's perspective to the day's most important stories, helping readers understand not just what is happening, but why it matters. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jan 4, 2017 7:30 PM UTC  (Photo by Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images) (Photo by Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images) Roberto Machado Noa—LightRocket via Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jan 4, 2017 7:30 PM UTC If you thought leaving the house and heading to work after the holidays was tough, consider the plight of a man in [Western Germany](http://time.com/4617605/germany-police-failure-anis-amri-milan/), who was greeted by a solid wall when he opened his front door on Monday. The man was leaving his house in Mainhausen, Germany only to run into a wall that was built in the doorway of his home during the night. According to the [_AP_](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/4c8e937434c245149235fc2f6b58fa61/german-mans-front-door-walled-overnight), a police statement noted that the man “must have felt like a Berliner in August 1961,” referring [to the closing of the border between East and West Germany with the Berlin Wall](http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1631993,00.html). The police told news agency DPA that officers don’t know if the wall was created as a part of a prank, a dare, or an act of revenge. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4622072/brick-wall-prank/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4622072/brick-wall-prank/"},"headline":"This Man Opened His Front Door to Find Himself Completely Walled In","datePublished":"2017-01-04T19:30:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:39:54.350Z","description":"Officials don't know if a prank, dare, or revenge motivated the building of the wall","url":"https://time.com/4622072/brick-wall-prank/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Entertainment","Humor","Funny","Weird News","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf4b680ec88b27744/6988b4638fd2ee04663554f7/german-man-walled-in.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf4b680ec88b27744/6988b4638fd2ee04663554f7/german-man-walled-in.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Saint Michael Choir School in Bond Street. 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