So here you are.
You’re watching a jail break movie, and the main characters have worked out an elaborate
escape plan, successfully made it to freedom and after finding out, the guards just say:
“Fine.
It’s your legal right after all”.
Boy, the Shawshank Redemption would be a pretty short movie huh?
15 minutes tops.
But in fact, a situation like this is possible in some countries of the world.
In Germany, Austria, Belgium and Mexico, this desire to escape, and fighting for your liberty
is considered to be a basic human nature and right.
Not only is it considered such by people, but officially recognized by law.
In Germany, this law is more than 130 years old, as it dates to 1880s, to the times of
the German Empire.
Back then, the Reichstag, or German Government, declared the right to seek self-liberation
a basic human right.
After an actual attempt to escape that was taken by a Mexican burglar in 2002 who knew
about the legal escape law, a local Supreme Court judge explained that "The person who
tries to escape is seeking liberty, and that is deeply respected in the law".
An important detail to note here is that there is a difference between seeking liberty and
actually having liberty.
So yes, local prisoners won’t be punished for breaking out of jail.
Before you decide to get those countries off your travel list because it sounds like they
have criminals running around the streets, here’s one important detail.
While escapees won’t be punished for the escape itself, they will be charged with any
crime they committed en route to liberty.
For instance, if someone decides to break a window and just jump out of it, or break
their cell bars, they will damage jail property.
Even if they just open the window, they’ll be charged with stealing jail property.
And since they’d prefer not to go naked, the clothes they’d be wearing and stealing
are prison property.
If they bribe a guard, they’ll be punished for bribery.
If they get into the first vehicle they find, it’ll be theft.
And, if they’re ever spotted somewhere by the police and captured, even years later,
they’ll still have to do the time they had left before their escape with no good conduct
prisoner sentence reductions possible.
Plus, you can get extra jail time for the crimes you’ve committed during the grand
escape.
So you see, it’s practically impossible to break free and remain unpunished even in
the countries when seeking liberty from jail is legal.
But still, there were people who managed to do it the legal way (if you can say so in
this context) and use their right to the fullest.
Check this one out: In 1971, American businessman Joel Kaplan managed to escape from Mexico
City’s Santa Maria Acatitla prison along with one other inmate.
It was all so well planned and arranged -- obviously with outside help -- that this real-life escape
sounds like something straight out of Hollywood movies.
It was a regular evening and most of the 136 jail guards were watching a movie with their
guns in their hands when a Bell helicopter landed into the prison yard.
They thought it must have been some surprise official visitor and didn’t take any action
against the helicopter, of course.
Meanwhile, it took two prisoners from Cell number 10 less than two minutes to get into
the helicopter and escape to safety.
So, none of them had to shoot or bribe the guards.
They didn’t damage prison property and didn’t steal a vehicle to use for their escape.
In fact, the helicopter was private and not rented or leased, so they didn’t use rented
property for the wrong purpose.
Then, they changed into a private plane that was also legally bought.
When they reached the US border in Texas, Kaplan continued his journey to California
and the other escapee went for Guatemala.
The plan for the flight was made in advance and approved by the Federal Aviation Administration.
When crossing the US border, both Kaplan and the pilot gave the customs their real names,
so no crime with fake IDs was committed either and they entered the country absolutely legally.
More than that, after returning home Kaplan proudly announced that his escape was fully
legal as he took care of all the little details and made no mistakes.
Mexican authorities did find a crime that accompanied the escape, which was the use
of accomplices -- since the businessman hired a pilot.
But the businessman never had to go back to jail as the FBI nor the Mexican authorities
ever tried to charge him again.
A more recent situation when a prisoner broke out of jail and it didn’t add up to his
time there, also took place in Mexico.
A guy sentenced to 20 years for drug trafficking managed to escape -- not once but twice!
His first escape was in 2001, and it was 13 years later when he was caught and put back
into jail.
The second time he escaped from maximum-security Altiplano prison outside Mexico City was in
2015 -- 17 months after his second arrest.
He designed a complicated construction with a mile-long tunnel running from the shower
area and a motorcycle inside running on a rail.
The tunnel was even equipped with electricity, and moving along it the drug lord broke the
bulbs to make it harder for the police to find him.
And, he also got rid of his localization bracelet before entering the shower area that was one
of the only blind spots in a well-supervised jail.
Thanks to many efforts of the police and the Mexican government, the escapee was found
and arrested again a couple months later.
And, no extra time was added to his sentence for these 2 successful escape attempts.
Not all prison escapes go unpunished, but some of them deserve an honorary mention since
they appear too unbelievable to be real, yet they all are.
Here’s one.
A 50-year-old man in South Korea was arrested as he was suspected of robbery on September
12, 2002.
Just 5 days later he managed to escape from his prison cell thanks to his yoga skills!
His 23 years of yoga practice made it possible for the man to simply squeeze through the
food slot in his cell bars that was 5.9 inches tall and 17.7 inches wide.
He covered himself in skin ointment to make it easier to slip through.
The whole process only took him 34 seconds while the guards were sound asleep.
Doctors weren’t able to explain this phenomenon since the skull of an adult male normally
won’t fit through such a small hole.
Maybe he deflated his head.
It could happen.
Now Even though he was arrested again 6 days later, the guy will now always be proudly
nicknamed “Korean Houdini”.
After the incident he was placed in a cell with a way smaller food slot.
Have you seen the movie “Catch Me If You Can”?
Its plot is captivating, but not many people know it was inspired by real life and based
on an autobiography of Frank Abagnale.
He was sentenced to 12 years of jail for his bold forgery and impersonation crimes in the
1960s and was escorted by a Marshall who had forgotten his papers.
Abagnale took advantage of the situation and convinced the guards he was an undercover
prison inspector.
When he got into jail, Mr Abagnale got two business cards made by his friend and accomplice.
Both of them were obviously fake, one of a FBI agent and one of a prison inspector.
The smart criminal told the guards to call the FBI agent.
His friends played that part on the phone, and told the guards to let Abagnale out.
Then, he just walked out the front door to safety.
Then there was a criminal in the UK back in 1955, who earned the title of “escape Artist”.
Thanks to his creative skills, he managed to make a copy of the jail workshop key using
his memory.
He captured every detail of the original key so precisely he was able to reproduce it and
escaped.
8 months later, he was re-arrested in Ireland.
When he was at court in London he once again escaped while on his way to the bathroom.
Upon being arrested again he organized escape #3 using his same trick.
This time, he reproduced the key to a bathhouse.
But it was not his artistic skills that eventually helped him gain pardon.
He studied the laws regarding his case and managed to stand his ground in 17 court appearances!
In 2015, two guys became the only people in 170 years to have managed to escape from Clinton
Correction Facility, NY.
They got out through a maze of tunnels carving into a pipe.
They used hacksaw blades that the prison tailor smuggled for them in frozen hamburger meat.
As they were leaving, they left a goodbye note for the guards wishing them to have a
nice day.
So which of the escape stories impressed you the most?
Let us know in the comments below.
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