Escaped convict hitchhikes back to prison

Jerusalem, Israel
Mail & Guardian Online

An escaped Israeli convict experienced first-hand the perils of hitchhiking after he thumbed a lift on Sunday only to be picked up by a prison warden who drove him straight back to jail.

"I didn't recognise him at first, but when he leant over to ask which direction we were heading, I saw he was the prisoner we had been looking for nine months," the officer told reporters on Sunday.

"I whispered to one of my friends that he was an escaped prisoner. After he sat down and shut the door, I called the police," added the off-duty warden, who had been out day-tripping with friends to the beach.

Last week, police tried to rearrest the escaped jailbird as he laid low at his mother's house in Tiberias, before he dodged the cops and ran off.

The prisoner, who is serving a nine-year sentence for assault and drug trafficking, had given his jailers the slip nine months ago after being granted a few hours' parole. -- AFP