Wordle game saves octogenarian American from hostage situation – Release

It allows millions of players to pass the time by digging (more or less) their heads. Obviously, he saves lives, too. Thanks to the game Wordle, an American octogenarian woman was able to be rescued from a hostage situation lasting several hours, according to the local CBS TELEVISION station. Denyse Holt, who lives in Lincolnwood, a suburb of Chicago in the northern United States, was home alone on the night of February 5 when a man broke in and threatened her with a pair of scissors. He held her hostage for almost 17 hours.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, her daughter, a Seattle resident, was waiting as every day to receive her mother’s score at the popular Wordle game. The principle: find a five-letter word every day, in up to six tries. But the message indicating its result – a ritual well known to users – never arrived. Worried, she decided to call Lincolnwood Police for a routine visit to her mother’s home. Officers then discovered she was being held against her will.

According to Denyse Holt, the man, who was naked and bloodied after breaking a window to get in, assured her he would do her no harm, but he forced her to take a shower and then a bath – all dressed up – with him before locking her in the basement. “I didn’t think I was going to survive”, the octogenarian told CBS. Lincolnwood police suspect the hostage-taker is mentally ill, the station also reported. The hostage situation remained deadlocked for several hours, before SWAT, a police response unit, used an electric pistol to neutralize the suspect and save the old lady. Denyse Holt, in a state of shock after this ordeal, was not injured.