The first word in this document is "Imagine", how can it be clearer than that?

This is a common setup to build empathy so doesn't always mean "the following is a hypothetical thought exercise", such as "Imagine you find your self in the same situation as me, your house struck by lightning..."

Given all the pictures in the article, I took that to mean "imagine you were in my situation", not "imagine this happened to me".

It's ambiguous; the word can be used not only for a hypothetical, but also a "put yourself in my shoes"

Unfortunately the Internet is rife with poor sarcasm and misleading titles.

It also detracts from the main point, which is this could happen to someone, but, since it’s hypothetical, makes it sounds a lot more unrealistic. The "fireproof but not lightning-proof" safe gave me pause, for example.

If he was actually locked out as described, how would he have made this blog post?