Man caught after making rope out of sheets to escape hotel quarantine

A man has been accused of watching “too many movies” after he made a daring attempt to flee a quarantine hotel in Australia.

The 39-year-old had arrived in Brisbane from Queensland at around 4.15pm (local time) but failed to meet the necessary requirements to enter the state of Western Australia (WA).

Under current Covid rules, all arrivals in WA must complete an online application providing information on the passenger’s health and where they’re travelling from.

But the man’s forms were rejected for not satisfying Queensland’s exemption restrictions and he was instructed to leave the state within 48 hours. In the meantime, he was placed in temporary quarantine overnight or, at least, that was the plan…

Just before 1am on Tuesday morning he climbed out of a fourth-floor window at the Rivervale hotel “using a rope made of bedsheets,” police said.

He successfully fled the scene, but was caught by officers just before 9am and taken into custody.

The 39-year-old was charged with providing false/misleading information and “failure to comply with a direction” (in layman’s terms: not doing what he was told).

The one silver lining is that he tested negative for coronavirus following the debacle, but that hasn’t stopped the public from condemning his “selfish” behaviour.

Responding to WA Police’s statement on the incident, which was shared on social media, Facebook users lambasted the man for “putting the lives of everyone in Perth at risk.”

“He shouldn’t have been allowed out of the airport in the first place,” one wrote.

“What the eff, is wrong with these people. Just unbelievably selfish,” commented another.

“Chuck the book at him... fines galore and a flight back to [Queensland] ... AT HIS EXPENSE,” demanded a third.

While a fourth observed simply: “Looks like he’s watched too many movies.”