Wanted fugitive disguises himself as a wise man to fool police
A migrant on the run from police tried to disguise himself in a Christmas nativity scene – as the fourth of the three wise men.
The wanted man was being chased in the town of Galatone, southern Italy, when he tried to trick officers into thinking he was a part of the life-size nativity scene.
The unnamed 38-year-old, from Ghana, was fleeing police after a conviction for assault and resisting arrest.
The migrant attempted to blend in, raising his arms and holding still as he tried to pull off the hilarious, quick-thinking move of becoming a human statue worthy of a baddie from Scooby Doo.
But he was rumbled when the town’s mayor spotted him after seeing small movements in the corner of his eye.
Mayor Flavio Filoni said: ‘While I was walking past the nativity scene, which set up by our tourism office, I noticed a figure which I initially though was part of the scene.
‘But then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the figure moving.’
The man was then promptly arrested by police and remanded in custody in Lecce, a nearby city, where he will spend the rest of his sentence.
He had previously been sentenced to nine months and 15 days by a court in Bologna.
Filoni thanked police officers for their ‘swift’ recovery of the wanted man.
He said: ‘Thanks to the swift intervention of our local police, the state police and the Carabinieri, it was possible to identify this person, who it turned out was a wanted fugitive.
‘A big thank you to all men and women who uphold our security with competence and dedication.’
It comes after a man ‘dressed as an elf’ was arrested in Liverpool this week.
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Merseyside Police officers stopped the man on Tuesday, December 9, on Church Street in the city centre after he made abusive comments towards them.
It was discovered that he was a named suspect for an assault on Duke Street on Monday, November 17, where a woman was punched in the face and suffered injuries to her lip and nose.
Officers arrested a 55-year-old man from Liverpool on suspicion of assault.
He was taken to a police station in Merseyside and since been bailed with conditions.
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