Man Quarantined To 4th-Floor Hotel Room Flees Using Oldest Trick In The Book

A man in Australia allegedly fashioned a makeshift rope out of bedsheets to flee the fourth-floor hotel room where he was supposed to be quarantined.

The 39-year-old made the dangerous escape from the hotel in the Perth suburb of Rivervale around 12.45 a.m. Tuesday. He remained at large for eight hours before police located him. He was charged with failure to comply with a direction and providing false or misleading information.

Western Australia Police shared images of the stunt on Facebook:

The man, whose name wasn’t released, had been told to “temporarily quarantine overnight” after he failed to meet the state’s strict COVID-19 border rules. He’d recently arrived on a flight from Brisbane.

It’s unclear why the man fled the hotel. He later tested negative for COVID-19, said police.

The escape came as 13 million people in Australia continued in lockdown amid fears of the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant.