CALGARY, Alberta – The Calgary Police Department has laid numerous charges against two men following a special event held for a group of geoscientists at a escape room business that they own.
On Tuesday, police were called to Level Up Escape on the 600 block of 12th Avenue in the beltline area just before 4:34am after reports of screaming and groaning heard from the popular locked room establishment by people from a neighbouring apartment building and passersby.
According to an ear-witness who lived in the multi-family dwelling next door, “I was awoken from a deep sleep by screams of ‘Okaaaaay, guys, you can let us out now… help… HEEELLLPP!! This isn’t funny anymore!’ It was clear that somebody was in trouble, so I called 911.”
When officers arrived on the scene to the seemingly closed Level Up Escape, they forced entry into the building to find 37 geoscientists being held against their will. The group was taken to hospital where they remain for psychological assessment from the traumatic event.
Later that same day Alix Renerder, 44, and Geoffrey Kysler, 41, both of Calgary were arrested and charged with 37 counts of verbal assault causing confusion, forcible confinement, entrapment, and disrupting cellular service using a Faraday cage.
Alix Renerder and Geoffrey Kysler, arrested by Calgary Police Department
After a short appearance in court, Renerder and Kysler were released on their own recognizance.
In a statement from the lawyers representing the men, it was business as usual for the two professional engineers who own Level Up Escape.
James Lawful III, Ditcher, Quick, & Hyde divorce lawyers
“My clients meant no harm, and in fact I will be able to prove that they did not modify the rooms in any way, shape, or form in the night in question. We’re talking about geologists here… most geoscientists I know couldn’t pour water out of a boot with instructions written on the heel, let alone find their way out of a locked room.”
The crown prosecutor admits that while the intellect of the average geoscientist is rivaled only by garden tools, and as a group they prove that evolution actually can go in reverse, that those are not reasons to confine them against their will.
CPD plans to interview the victims when they are released from hospital which could lead to additional charges and possibly civil lawsuits against the charged.
