Oily prisoner gives Norwegian jailers the slip
A Lithuanian held on theft charges in an Arctic Norwegian jail slipped out of custody – literally – by stripping naked and smearing himself with vegetable oil to slide through the prison bars.
“He slipped through the bars on Christmas Eve,” said Svein-Erik Jacobsen, operation leader for the Oest-Finnmark Police District, after the unusual escape made national news in Norway today.
Another Lithuanian, held as an accomplice in the same cell, also tried the technique to slip out the window of the Vadsoe Jail, but failed, apparently because he was too big. The men had managed to bend the bars slightly to gain more space.
“It was a good effort,” said Jacobsen. “But all he did was get his head and part of his shoulder through the bars.”
A police news release identified the escaped suspect as Yuris Sinkevicius, 25, and said he was five feet eight inches tall and thin. He remained at large.
The two were being held on suspicion of being involved in an organised grand theft ring.
