Story Archive

Assorted Loose Nuts

Twelve inmates escaped from the Walker County, Ala., jail by tricking a “young” jailer. “Escapes happen,” Sheriff James Underwood said. “We’ve got some evil people down here, and they scheme all the time to con us and our employees at the jail. You’ve got to stay on your toes. This is one time we slipped up. I’m not going to make any excuses.” Once the inmates got out of the building it only took them ten minutes to scale a 12-foot fence topped with razor wire and disappear. But the question was, how did they fool the apparently inexperienced jailer? “Changing numbers on doors with peanut butter,” Underwood explained. The jailer “thought he was opening the cell door for this man to go in his cell, but in fact he opened up the outside door.” All 12 inmates were recaptured over the course of a couple of days. (MS/Birmingham News) ...The ringleader told the gang he’d “Get them out in a Jif.”