For Amanda Carpenter, getting trapped in an elevator was a nightmare. 
 
 Back in February, the former communication director for Sen. Ted Cruz found herself in an unfavorable situation: she was trapped in an Amtrak elevator at Baltimore–Washington International Airport. 
 
 In an attempt to free herself from the commuter prison, Carpenter tweeted to her 90,000+ followers asking for help. 
 
 Guys. I'm trapped in an amtrak elevator at Bwi airport. Help? — Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) February 14, 2016 
 
 To make matters worse, the elevator's certificate of compliance was well past its expiration date. 
 
 Here is the notice showing inspection expiration for the elevator I was trapped inside. Thx Amtrak pic.twitter.com/BkTKciOki5 — Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) February 14, 2016 
 
 On Wednesday, nearly seven months later, Amtrak came to Carpenter's rescue and responded to her original tweet, asking if she was still trapped inside the elevator. 
 
 @amandacarpenter We are sorry to hear that. Are you still in the elevator? — Amtrak (@Amtrak) September 7, 2016 
 
 Amtrak later cleared up the confusion by stating that someone had recently re-tweeted the call for help, which put it back on its radar. 
 
 While social media slip-ups from brands are the norm on Twitter, Amtrak's failure to notice how much time had passed was a breath of fresh air. It was an honest mistake that anyone could have made. 
 
 @amandacarpenter Someone just re-tweeted it. Wanted to make sure. Glad you're out :) — Amtrak (@Amtrak) September 7, 2016 
 
 @amandacarpenter We're happy to have you aboard. — Amtrak (@Amtrak) September 7, 2016 
 
 After the tweet gained some attention, Amtrak attempted to remedy the situation by offering Carpenter a free ride on its Acela service. 
 
 @amandacarpenter Not our finest hour yesterday. We'd love to offer you an Acela ride on us for the inconvenience back in February. — Amtrak (@Amtrak) September 8, 2016 
 
 After all, Amtrak actually did respond to Carpenter's original tweet back in February, only 16 minutes after she originally reached out. 
 
 @amandacarpenter BWI agents are aware of you, and are working to get you out. — Amtrak (@Amtrak) February 14, 2016 
 
 Regardless, the damage was done and the internet was highly amused. 
 
 [h/t:Vocativ] ||||| Pandemonium erupted at Penn Station Friday after Amtrak police used a stun gun on an unruly man — sending scared riders scrambling for safety. 
 
 The transit hub was unusually crowded at rush hour thanks to an NJ Transit train that stalled in a tunnel earlier, causing massive delays to kick off the holiday weekend. 
 
 Cops confronted a man and subdued him with a stun gun around 6:30 p.m., sparking a stampede of frightened travelers who feared that a shooting had taken place. 
 
 Amtrak police subdued the man with a stun gun around 6:30 p.m., sparking a stampede of hysteric travelers. (Mary Altaffer/AP) 
 
 “We were sitting on the ground and all of a sudden we heard this loud noise and everyone started sprinting,” said 24-year-old Aubrey Moore. “It sounded like a gunshot, but nobody knew what was going on so I just sprinted.” 
 
 FDNY officials said 13 people were injured in the chaos. Amtrak authorities said the man was taken into custody. 
 
 MTA, NJ Transit rip Amtrak after Penn Station derailment 
 
 Video of the arrest shows cops pinning a man on the ground and placing him in handcuffs. 
 
 A look at the chaos at Penn Station after Amtrak police used a Taser on a man. Details: https://t.co/4eIk8Ak0k2 pic.twitter.com/RjcuwGX7NR — Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) April 14, 2017 
 
 “Be advised, individual in custody, force used, individual was Tased,” one of the officers says into his radio. 
 
 The four cops were quickly joined by officers from the NYPD and members of the National Guard. 
 
 “I’m not resisting. This is only my mouth. I have freedom of speech,” the suspect tells cops. 
 
 Penn Station's limited service over derailment to go on for days 
 
 Hundreds of commuters waiting in Penn Station for service of the NJ Transit train to resume. (Sam Costanza/for New York Daily News) 
 
 Toward the end of the footage, a dazed-looking woman pushes past the cops shouting: “Where did my son go?” 
 
 Other videos, from networks covering the stalled train, show pandemonium erupting as panicked crowds pushed past one another to escape the underground hub. 
 
 Anna Renzi, 24, was waiting out a long delay on her trip home to Washington, D.C., with her family at Häagen-Dazs in the transit hub’s concourse when crowds began streaming by. 
 
 The stalled train cased up to 45-minute delays. (Sam Costanza/for New York Daily News) 
 
 “I thought I heard someone yell ‘shooter,’ that’s why I threw my nephew behind a counter and jumped over and they just had us hide in the storage closet because I had the kids,” Renzi said. “The employees were so awesome they just had us hid there until it was safe to come out.” 
 
 Mets fan angry at NJ Transit to get car, tix for Friday's game 
 
 Officials and the NYPD sought to assuage fears on social media after the stampede. 
 
 “Bad information. No shots have been fired at Penn Station. @NYPDMTS @NYPDSpecialops @Amtrak,” NYPD spokesman J. Peter Donald wrote. 
 
 “No shots were fired at Penn Station this evening,” Mayor de Blasio tweeted. “FDNY is on scene treating injuries that were sustained during panic.” 
 
 The incident was frighteningly similar to a scare last summer at Kennedy Airport when a raucous Olympic victory celebration sparked fears of a shooting. 
 
 Mets fan loses his mind after NJ Transit derailment causes delays 
 
 On Friday, cops also responded to reports of a shooter at Macy’s flagship store on 34th St., just blocks from Penn Station — but said there was no need to panic. 
 
 Caught in mass stampede for the exists when a tasing incident was mistaken for an active shooter in Penn station. @NBCNewYork Aftermath: pic.twitter.com/XxdpEoKgqq — Chris McClave (@McClave) April 14, 2017 
 
 “Additionally, we have responded to numerous calls for shots fired in & around @Macys on 34th Street in Manhattan. All are unfounded,” Donald added. 
 
 The disarray at Penn Station began when a malfunction with overhead power equipment trapped 1,200 NJ Transit commuters on a train heading into Penn Station for about two hours, officials said. 
 
 The stalled train, #3850 out of Trenton, caused heavy delays, about an hour, on NJ Transit service heading in and out of Penn Station, according to the New Jersey transit agency and commuters. 
 
 Riders went on Twitter to vent about the delays. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) 
 
 The stalled NJ Transit train started its trek to Penn Station shortly before 6 p.m. once it regained power, according to executive director Steven Santoro. 
 
 He encouraged commuters on the train to contact NJ Transit with their complaints. 
 
 “We deeply apologize for your experience, and I would like to hear from you,” Santoro said. 
 
 We are stuck behind another #NJTransit train stuck inside the tunnel to Penn Station. pic.twitter.com/yZb1wm2kEf — Cameron Ridle (@CameronRidle) April 14, 2017 
 
 Riders waiting for the delays to clear took to Twitter to vent their frustration at NJ Transit. 
 
 “This is unbelievable. It should not have taken this long. Disgraceful,” wrote Neil Gallagher, in his first tweet since 2015. 
 
 “I've been stuck for an hour and twenty minutes...maybe change your delay time?,” user @BeckyAnne120 wrote. 
 
 Trains in/out of New York are now subject to up to 45 min delays due to an Amtrak overhead power problem in one of the Hudson River Tunnels. — NJ TRANSIT (@NJTRANSIT) April 14, 2017 
 
 Another passenger complained that he and his fellow NJ Transit riders are in the dark about the delays. 
 
 “@NJTRANSIT question- we are stuck on this train underground and no one is communicating to us what is actually happening- why?” wrote @patrickJWB. 
 
 Inside Penn Station, it was commuting chaos as hundreds of NJ Transit commuters crammed into its section of Penn Station, with trains on standby. 
 
 This is unbelievable. It should not have taken this long. Disgraceful. — Neil Gallagher (@NGSquan79) April 14, 2017 
 
 Jessica Carson, 31, who needed to catch a 5:15 p.m. train to Livingston, N.J., for Shabbat dinner, wondered whether it was worth staying at Penn Station. 
 
 “I guess I'll hang for a bit before I call my father and ask if he would like to pay for an Uber,” she said, shrugging off the possibility of missing family dinner. “It's public transportation. It happens.” 
 
 Amtrak spokesman Mike Tolbert said that the agency’s engineering crews had to inspect the train before the train moved out of the south Hudson River tunnel. 
 
 Penn Station commuters have been getting shafted lately by unreliable service at the busy transit hub, owned and maintained by Amtrak. 
 
 There were two train derailments in less than two weeks that caused days of limited service on NJ Transit and Long Island Rail Road trains, as Amtrak crews scrambled to bring Penn Station back to normal. 
 
 Government officials in both states have ripped into Amtrak's management of Penn Station following back-to-back derailments of NJ Transit trains, which investigators believe were caused by problems with the tracks. 
 
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 With Denis Slattery
– Amtrak is taking its lumps after a Twitter misfire. In response to a woman's tweet about being stuck in an Amtrak elevator at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, Amtrak tweeted on Wednesday, "We are sorry to hear that. Are you still in the elevator?" Well, no. Amanda Carpenter's plea for help had actually gone out seven months earlier, and Amtrak failed to notice the elapsed time. Carpenter, who is Ted Cruz's former communications director, responded, "Oh, my thank you for this but I was trapped months ago. Like last February. Thanks for checking...? Ha." The gaffe has brought all kinds of ridicule and memes down upon Amtrak, as rounded up by Mashable. "Not our finest hour," acknowledged the company in a followup tweet. It seems that Carpenter's original tweet resurfaced all these months later because somebody retweeted it for some reason, and whoever responded on behalf of Amtrak simply didn't see the date. In fairness to the company, it responded to the original tweet just 16 minutes after Carpenter sent the request for help, telling her that "BWI agents are aware of you, and are working to get you out." Amtrak has now offered Carpenter a free train ride over the mess, but that didn't stop Twitter users from poking fun at what one guy calls "the worst customer service response time ever." Another used a gif of a skeleton holding a telephone.