Woman Locked Inside Virginia Square-GMU Metro Station

ARLINGTON, Va. - "I was completely terrified," explained 25-year-old Chrissy Shugars. "I'm not good at being alone, not good at confined places."

But Shugars was alone inside Metro's Virginia Square-GMU station in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

She had forgotten to transfer to a Blue Line train at the Rosslyn station and figured she could take an inbound train at Virginia Square. Shugars got some assurance for her late night plan from the electronic signboard on the platform.

"It said the next train was [coming in] nine minutes," said Shugars.

So, she sat on the stone bench. No more passenger trains were running, however. Metro shuts down at midnight on weeknights.

"The next thing I knew, no one's around. I go to the top of the stairs, and I'm completely locked in," said Shugars.

The station manager had locked the gate and left for the night.

A spokesman at Metro said station managers are supposed to walk the length of the passenger platform and the mezzanine areas of the station before locking the gates for the night.

That baffles Shugars.

"I wasn't hiding," the young woman said. "I was sitting on a bench on the platform [area] in clear view, if anyone had walked by me."

The young woman called a friend for advice. The friend called Arlington police, who contacted Metro Transit Police. An officer from that force unlocked the station after nearly an hour of being Shugars being trapped. 

The Metro spokesman says the transit agency is investigating the incident.

One month ago, two women got off the last train of the night at the Metro station in Cheverly, Md., only to find they, too, had been locked in the station by a manger who had left.

Metro officials say that station manager has been given retraining.