Escaped prisoner stops for a pint

A man in the US escaped from a police holding cell, but stopped his time on the run to go for a pint and was subsequently arrested in the bar.

Police said that Timothy Bonner, 40, was being processed at a Washington County police station on an assault charge. He was then put in a holding cell and police officers removed his handcuffs, but Bonner knocked the cell door off its hinges and managed to escape from the police station.

Bonner then stopped at the house of a local resident, Bob Stewart, just opposite the police station and asked to borrow some shoes, before deciding to celebrate his escape with a beer.

According to the police, Bonner was found at Richy’s Bar, which is less than 500m from the police station, and on the same road.

Channel 11 News reported that customer Robert Smith bought Bonner a beer after he told him he had just escaped from jail.

Smith said: “He asked me to buy him a beer, so I bought him a beer. He didn’t even get to take a drink of it before they slammed him on the bar.

“He was only here a few minutes before police showed up.”