Doofus Of The Day #473

Today's award is shared between a German hiker, and prison guards who didn't do their jobs thoroughly enough.

A bungling male pedestrian in Germany spent nearly two hours locked up in an all-female prison after mistaking the grounds for a shortcut to a park.

The 24-year-old man walked through the portal of the maximum-security jail in Hildesheim while the gate was undergoing repairs.

Workmen should have secured it after knocking off for the day on Monday but a single loose screw prevented it from shutting properly.

There was, however, no danger of an inmate break out - the prisoners were secure in their cell blocks behind another internal gate that was well and truly shut.

When the wayward walker realised his mistake after about 20 minutes he walked back the way he had come in - only to find prison staff had repaired the loose screw in the meantime and closed the gate.

'He found himself in a no-man's-land between the prison walls,' said a spokesman for the local Justice Department, adding: 'It seemed, if we may say so, a pretty stupid thing to do.'

Howling for help behind the thick walls which prevented his mobile phone from working, he was heard by the mayor of the town, Henning Blum, who was walking home on the other side of the wall.

'I called police after I heard these cries of: "I have been locked up and I don't belong here!"'

There's more at the link.

I bet if they kept him locked up overnight, he wouldn't make that mistake again . . .





Peter