An elderly woman involuntarily spent the night in a Migros in Porrentruy, Canton Jura, after she failed to hear the announcements that the store was closing, and employees didn’t spot her before locking up. 

Woman spends night locked in Migros store

The 82-year-old woman, who has so far not been named, was doing her shopping in a branch of Migros in the Esplanade Centre in Porrentruy, a municipality close to the French border in Canton Jura. 

Store staff made a loudspeaker announcement that the store was closing imminently, but the woman did not hear it. Failing to notice anyone was still in the shop, staff pulled down the metal grilles and locked up for the night, leaving the woman trapped inside. 

Worse still, she had forgotten to bring her mobile phone, so had no way of calling for help. She was forced to wait overnight until the store opened the next morning. 20 Minuten reports that she “looked for a suitable place to sleep and stocked up on snacks”. 

Migros describes incident as “isolated case”

The woman's ordeal ended at 5am the next morning, when an employee arrived to open up. Emergency services were called to the scene, but said that the woman was unharmed, if a little tired after her rough night’s sleep. 

In a CH-Media article, the Migros Cooperative Federation described the incident as “an unfortunate isolated case”, adding that it was “very unusual for someone to stay overnight in one of our branches against their will” and that store announcements usually sufficed to clear the shop at closing time. 

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