Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2010/04/13/ovine_jailbreakers/
Argentinian jailbreakers dress in sheep's clothing
Ovine fugitives elude 300 cops
Posted in Bootnotes, 13th April 2010 10:10 GMT
Two Argentinian jailbreakers who disguised themselves as sheep have managed to elude a dragnet comprising 300 police officers with helicopter back-up.
According to La Nación, Maximiliano Omar Montenegro Pereyra, 25, and Ariel Andrés Aguirre Díaz, 28, escaped from the General Alvear maximum security prison in central Buenos Aires province on 4 April.
The last time they were spotted was on 7 April when ranch worker Demetrio Romera nipped out to put out the rubbish and was confronted by the two "dressed in grey clothes with sheep skins over their heads and shoulders".
The pair asked Romera for food and a mobile phone, explaining they were on the run from the authorities. He refused, and luckily escaped the same treatment the perps had previously handed out to labourer Carlos Astaburuaga on another ranch when he declined to provide them with horses.
They gave Astaburuaga a beating for his trouble, and swiped the two sheep skins which have to date proved entirely effective in confounding cops.
The dragnet continues, while prison authorites are investigating just how the ovine runaways managed to escape in the first place. According to the Sun and the Telegraph, one cop insisted the crims "can't pull the wool over our eyes forever", although original Argentinian news sources don't quote this piece of police drollery. ®