Man dressed as Snoopy arrested while breaking into wrong prison

A man who tried to break into prison to free an inmate while dressed as the cartoon character Snoopy is being held under the Mental Health Act. Prison wardens were baffled when they were confronted by the character from the Peanuts cartoon trying to break down a staff door while apparently waving a gun.

The man and an accomplice, who were attempting to free a relative from HMP Isle of Wight, went on to hurl concrete missiles at prison officers’ cars. A prison source said: “It’s not every day you see a giant cartoon dog go on the rampage after trying to break into a prison. They weren’t exactly inconspicuous but they were taken seriously because they appeared to have a gun.



“They caused a real commotion and it was only later they were found to be armed with a water pistol.” It emerged after the pair were arrested that they had attempted to break into the wrong prison. They had staged the attempted jail-break at the Isle of Wight’s Albany site, while the relative they were looking for was locked up in the nearby Cramp Hill unit.

The source added: “This has got to rank as one of the worst attempted jail breaks ever.” A spokesman for Hampshire Police said two men, aged 43 and 21, were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and held under the Mental Health Act after the incident on May 1. It is not clear which of the two men was dressed as Snoopy.