Convict ties monitoring tag to his dog and flees
Police arrive at home of detainee who failed to show up to court hearing and find his dog wearing electronic handcuffs
Rather than acting as a guard dog, a convicted criminal's pet dog provided his master with the perfect escape cover, wearing the criminal's electronic monitoring tag in his place.
The switch was only discovered when the convict, placed under house arrest before sentencing, failed to turn up for a court appearance. The 35-year-old man had been found guilty of shooting a gun during a family quarrel in the Arab Israeli village of Mailiya, and was facing sentencing on an attempted murder conviction.
After the convict's non-appearance, the private security company contracted to monitor convicts on bail, or sentenced to curfew orders, informed the police that according to their monitoring data the man was at home.
When officers stormed the convict's house on Thursday, they found no trace of him but stumbled on his "handcuffed" dog.
It remains unclear how the convict succeeded in unlocking the electronic handcuffs which are designed to send a warning to the security company when opened.
"Policemen arrived at his house and didn't find him. We then consulted the security company who said that he was at home and the tag was working," said Chief Superintendent Yoram Daniel.
"We started searching and found that the detainee had somehow to remove the cuffs from his feet. To conceal his trick he tied the handcuffs around his dog's neck," Daniel added.
The police have launched a search to locate the convict.
