MILLERSBURG — A man who told his wife he would be “back in ten minutes” remained in Aisle 7 of Hendricks Home & Hardware on Saturday afternoon, three hours into what he continues to describe as “a quick trip.”

Dale Pruitt, 43, entered the store at 10:15 a.m. seeking one half-inch flat washer to repair a dripping utility sink faucet. He located the fastener section within minutes, according to store employees, but has been unable to find the correct bin, the correct size, or, at last report, the end of the aisle.

“I passed the metric washers about forty minutes ago, and I’m pretty sure I passed them again,” said Pruitt, reached by phone while walking. “There’s a section for ‘specialty’ washers. I didn’t know washers had specialties.”

Store associate Marcy Kowalczyk, 26, who has worked at the location for four years, said the aisle’s length has long been an open secret among staff. “It goes back farther than the building,” she said. “We don’t really talk about it. If a customer asks for toggle bolts, we point and say ‘down there,’ and we don’t watch them go.”

Kowalczyk confirmed that the store’s exterior measures roughly 140 feet deep, while Aisle 7 has, by informal staff estimate, “a few miles on it.” She said an employee once stocked a shelf of cotter pins at the far end and returned the following Tuesday with a different haircut.

Dr. Lionel Vasterhaus, senior fellow in Retail Spatial Anomalies at the Institute for Applied Square Footage in Dayton, Ohio, said the phenomenon is well documented. “Hardware stores operate on what we call the Bin Principle: any space can be extended indefinitely provided it is subdivided into sufficiently small drawers,” he said. “Once you get to the little plastic drawers with the tiny labels, the building has effectively conceded.”

Vasterhaus added that the aisle’s apparent length is reinforced by a second effect, in which every item sought is located one section behind wherever the shopper currently stands. “It is always the last place you look, and there is always a new last place.”

“I’ve found nineteen things I need and none of the things I came for.”

Pruitt’s wife, Renee, said she has called his phone twice, and that he answered both times with “Almost done.” She said he has since texted a photograph of a bin labeled “MISC. FENDER,” followed by the message, “Do we need these?”

Store management said it is aware of the situation and has dispatched a team member with a flashlight and a bag of pretzels. A spokesperson for Hendricks Home & Hardware said the company “values every customer’s journey” and noted that carts are available at the front of the store, though it conceded that, for Aisle 7, “a cart might be more of a commitment.”

At press time, Pruitt had reportedly located a washer. It was five-eighths of an inch, but he said he would “make it work” and was attempting to find the exit, which an employee said was “behind him, probably.”