The Guardian
New York woman discovers secret apartment behind bathroom mirror
Samantha Hartsoe was trying to find a source of cold air in the bathroom and made a discovery that brought to mind the horror movie Candyman Samantha Hartsoe with her makeshift lighthouse. Surrounding the dark rooms, she whispers, “What’s wrong with me?” Photography: imran / Samantha Hartsoe / TikTok After Samantha Hartsoe stumbled across an entire three-bedroom apartment hidden behind the bathroom mirror in her own New York home, she chose to ignore the lessons of any good horror movie – and explore more . “Curiosity killed the cat, curiosity will kill me,” the Roosevelt Island resident told NBC New York. “I can’t not know what’s on the other side of my bathroom.” Hartsoe’s adventure, which took place earlier this month, was bizarre even in the notorious New York housing market, where real estate horror stories are almost a badge of honor. The 26-year-old actor documented the ordeal online and millions watched it, offering comparisons to films like Parasite and Candyman. In a series of TikTok videos, now viral, Hartsoe first notices a cold draft in his bathroom, strong enough to blow into strands of his hair. Then she looks behind the mirror, revealing the hidden apartment. Shocked, she still puts on a makeshift headlamp and mask, arms herself with a hammer – “Do it when you swing,” says her roommate – and climbs through the hole in the bathroom wall. A video warning warns that such actions “can result in serious injury” – but Hartsoe reaches the ground unscathed. “You are on the other side of the dimension!” her roommate tells her. “Go ahead.” Inside the secret hair-raising space, Hartsoe finds open windows and a pile of garbage bags. She also discovers an empty water bottle, which she calls “a sign of life”. Surrounding the dark rooms, she whispers, “What’s wrong with me?” “I was hoping there would be someone, especially with the water bottle there,” she told New York magazine. “And it definitely put me on the edge.” But after a thorough investigation, she decided that torn floors, exposed plumbing and the lack of a bathroom or bathtub made the space uninhabitable. The apartment’s presence remains shrouded in mystery. Hartsoe says that even his construction managers don’t fully understand. For now, she is avoiding her bathroom as much as possible, while attributing at least part of the mass appeal of her video to the attention of New Yorkers who can only dream of finding more square footage behind their bathroom walls. “I think everyone in New York has apartments so small that you don’t know what you’re going to find,” she said. “And everyone is waiting for more space.”