[real-eyes] Spanish police arrest the fax escape man
- From: Steven Clark <kcpadfoot@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 02 Apr 2011 09:04:09 -0500
I think this is funny.
Steve
MADRID (AP) - Spanish police say they have arrested a man who twice
escaped from
custody by having his wife send fake faxes ordering his release.
Fifty-seven-year-old Jose Carlos Serna was taken into custody at his
home in San
Lorenzo del Escorial, a suburb north of Madrid, on Friday, while hiding
in a hollowed-out
sofa, police said.
In December, he was in a cell at Arganda del Rey courthouse awaiting
trial when officers
got a fax purportedly from a regional court. It was followed by a phone
call purportedly
from a court official, corroborating the release order.
Officers tried to verify the order, but their calls went unanswered.
When they received
a second call confirming Serna's release, he was freed to a waiting
taxi. Both calls
came from his wife, Gema Maria Serna, whom police tracked down to a
house in the
northern suburb and arrested on March 3.
It was not the first time Serna used the trick on police. He escaped
from Valdemoro
jail in October using the same tools.
He had been in prison for heading a gang that in 2008 kidnapped a
Spanish businessman
and held him captive in the southern Portuguese beach resort area of the
Algarve.
Since his last escape Serna had rented several houses, including the
heavily fortified
suburban home where he was arrested.
Police said Serna had equipped the house with reinforced window
protection and a
secret entrance that could not be easily detected or approached. He had
also hired
a number of men to drive him around while pretending to be an Italian
university
professor.
Officers broke in through a skylight to find Serna hidden, the police
statement said.
© 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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