Escaped inmates dress as sheep

Prison escapees Maximiliano Pereyra and Ariel Diaz reportedly evaded police for a week by wearing sheep hides stolen from a local farm. From The Telegraph:

They used their disguises to fool officials for more than a week despite more than 300 members of the local constabulary searching for them.
The local police have been left embarrassed by the episode after locals reported seeing the pair running through local fields at night.
"They were wearing grey clothes but had full sheepskins, including the sheeps' heads, over their heads and backs,” said a farmworker at La Almeda.

"Argentina criminals 'evade capture by dressing up as sheep'"

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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wil9000

I think the profusion of references to “The Odyssey” proves that BoingBoingers are the smartest, best educated, and dammit, most handsome bunch of commenters around. Say it with me, kids:
“I’ve got a brain, and I’m not afraid to use it”.
This is my new motto. I just made it up.
- retrac13
  
  Wily Wil9000, that master of of mottos!
Anonymous

Odysseus did it first.
Rezmason

You might say they pulled the wool over their pursuers’ eyes!

Cricket cricket.

Now, if the police they evaded are anything like the TSA, all sheep and sheep-like animals will be prohibited from going near prisons.
- monkey
  
  thanks rezmason. we were betting on it “pulled the wool” or “wolf in sheep’s clothing” would hit the comments first. well played and i’ll enjoy the lunch you won me!
- Anonymous
  
  “Now, if the police they evaded are anything like the TSA, all sheep and sheep-like animals will be prohibited from going near prisons.”
  
  Actually, quite the opposite. The TSA ignores the obvious threats and instead focuses on elderly ladies and pre-teen children.
Boomshadow

The guards looked all around for the inmates…

*puts on sunglasses dramatically*

But turned up mutton interesting.

YEEEEEEAHHH!
scifijazznik

They must have been inspired by the Carly Fiorina ad.
- bat21
  
  Since you mentioned it:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRY7wBuCcBY
Anonymous

LOL…Very silly inmates.
Another Aaron

The article is unclear . . . have they been caught?

Or does it say, and I’m just a moron and missed it?
Anonymous

Lucky for them, they didn’t try the doughnut disguise.
Anonymous

They must have had Classical educations ;)
Anonymous

ROFL, only in Argentina…

@Rezmason: Fear not, our police is in the other end of the spectrum (as in: almost inexistent)
Xopher

I don’t understand why the police didn’t just ask ‘Arold.
ravenword

Oldest trick in the book…
nanuq

They managed to hide from the cops but should have kept an eye out for lonely farmers…
Anonymous

I see a George Clooney movie in the works — Men Who Dress Like Sheep
Anonymous

I’m argentinian, and felt like telling you this is part fake, part misinterpretation.

This is a kind of more realistic news report:

http://ar.news.yahoo.com/s/09042010/59/n-argentina-1252776-presos-huyen-vestidos-piel.html

and tells a slightly less stupid version of the story, including the fact that 300 cops are searching for 2 people in an area bigger than that of the UK (Buenos Aires province is 118,754 sq mi big, according to wikipedia)
- llazy8
  
  Hi Anonymous,
  Hmmmmm, yes, after reading the Telegraph article I can see why you needed to speak up. It was a little silly, plus direct quoting without siting the translation is slick and bad form. I’m not sure I believe that an Argentine officer said ‘They can’t pull the wool over our eyes forever’. For one, it’s an expression that I haven’t heard in Spanish, and so I doubt the officer said the same thing in Spanish. For two, in the chance that the police officer was speaking English, he or she would have to have a VERY advanced grasp of the language to be able to use an idiomatic expression right at the right time to make a deadpan joke. As an English teacher I can tell you that a speaker THAT advanced is hard to come by, and usually only found among the very well-off. My bullshit detector is tingling.
  I live in Argentina, and am often aware at a prejudiced slant to news and public opinion. So thank you for speaking up.
  On the other hand, I’m relatively confident that on Boing Boing, the issue here is that oodles of comments come in all the time from people expressing a strong dislike of most modern police forces and of authoritarian modes of thought in general. So, I suspect that most are happily chuckling into their coffee over how stupid cops can be, not how stupid Argentinian cops can be. For what it’s worth. Or maybe you’re just still annoyed at all the good press Chile got on Boing Boing after the earthquake . . .
Spookyland

Police officer Homer Polyphemus stated “From now on I will keep one eye on those sheep, you betcha.”
Teller

Their first choice was Bugs Bunny WAC outfits.
Shelby Davis

In other news, the Odyssey will soon be joining the list of books banned in prison.
nutbastard

So they were in the sheep, on the lam?
Anonymous

What you folks were only betting on two baaaa-d sheep jokes? You need to spend more time with rural types and have someone explain to you why WizardofPlum mentioned wellies (good one). Good taste prevents me from going further, but there are many more choices with sheep than two jokes.
wizardofplum

In Scotland it is the practice to include in such a search, members of the Black Watch and Argyll and Sutherland Highlander regiments, kilted and wearing rubber wellies.Their reputation for handling sheep is well known and revered in the British Army.
Anonymous

This is not the first time a prisoner attempted to dress as sheep in an attempt to escape. Such happend back in the 1830s at the notorious Port Arthur prison in present-day Tasmania (then Van Diemen’s Land), when one prisoner dressed up as a sheep and almost got away when guards saw this “sheep” and prepared to fire on it for fun. The prisoner saw them preparing to fire and realized the game was up so yelled out to them and begged them not to shoot. He was brought back to the prison and flogged.