Using brushes to chisel walls, crafting keys from spoons, or making mannequins from soap, prisoners have employed a variety of unexpected tools to carry out escapes.
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| In February, Russian prisoner Troian Aleksei used a plastic stick, a spoon, and two toothbrushes to bore a hole through the partition wall of his cell, escaping from the Khanh Hoa Provincial Police Detention Center. He then used these items to grind away at the ventilation window on the outer wall of the corridor in an attempt to escape, but was discovered. Aleksei was arrested in Vietnam late last year for using a fake card to withdraw money from an ATM. (Photo: Police) |
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| This is not the first time a Russian prisoner has used an unexpected tool to escape. In May 2013, Oleg Topalov, 33, escaped from Matrosskaya Tishina prison in Russia by using a spoon to bore a hole in the ceiling of his cell, opening a ventilation hole, and then climbing onto the prison roof and escaping through the fence. According to Sputnik, Topalov was later recaptured in Izmailovo Park, northwest of Moscow. Photo: Yahoo News |
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| Using a toothbrush, but not for chiseling walls, 26-year-old Kelvin Singleton, on March 27, modified it into a weapon to overpower jail staff in Chowan County, North Carolina, USA. Singleton had been arrested two months earlier for robbery and kidnapping. In April, police discovered Singleton's headless body in a North Carolina forest. Photo: wtkr |
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| Historically, there was a sensational prison escape involving highly sophisticated tools. In 1962, Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin, sentenced to life imprisonment for robbery and other crimes, escaped from Alcatraz prison. Alcatraz, considered an inescapable prison in the US, was located on an island in the middle of San Francisco Bay, designed to isolate prisoners from the outside world with its frigid waters. (Image: enkivillage) |
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| The Anglin brothers and Frank Morris built a drill from a vacuum cleaner motor to bore through walls. Photo: NPS |
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| These prisoners also made their own keys by carving grooves into the handles of metal spoons. Investigators believe they may have used power tools in the prison's workshops to do this. Photo: NPS |
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| They also cut and pasted pieces of cardboard, painting them green to create fake ventilation openings, hoping to deceive the guards into realizing they had escaped through the vents. Photo: NPS |
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| The prisoners also made dummies out of cotton, soap, and real hair. They placed these dummies on their beds to cover up their escape. Photo: FBI |
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| Upon exiting their cells, these men climbed down a drainpipe at the north end of the prison and jumped into the water. They used 50 prison raincoats (possibly stolen) to make makeshift life vests and rafts. However, they apparently abandoned these as they proved ineffective. Decades later, it remains unclear whether the prisoners survived to reach San Francisco Bay. Morris and the Anglin brothers are presumed missing and may have drowned. Photo: FBI |
According to VNE
