Jailbreak after lunch break: Inmates try to escape Brazilian prison by hiding in plastic bags filled with food and paper plates



It was a desperate bid for freedom that, perhaps with the benefit of hindsight, was always going to be described as rubbish.

Two inmates tried to escape from a Brazilian prison by disguising themselves as bags of garbage to be put out by prison guards.

Sidney da Cruz, 24, and Carlos Pereira, 18, hoped to be picked up and thrown outside by staff at the Delegacia de Furtos jail in Curitiba, southern Brazil.

Hands up who wants seconds: Sidney da Cruz, 24, and Carlos Pereira, 18, were caught hiding out in lunchtime rubbish bags after a guard saw the bags moving But a prison guard foiled the plot after noticing that the plastic bags were 'shaking', according to Brazil's Terra website. The lags' bid for freedom began on Tuesday after lunch, when leftover food and plastic plates are collected in rubbish sacks. The two men, jailed for car theft, climbed into the plastic sacks and put themselves next to the other bags lined up in a corridor for collection.

It's a fair cop: Pereira looks suitably embarrassed as prison guards take photos of him while he is still 'in costume'

Prison guard Cleverson Mineiro told Brazil's Record TV station: 'I was walking past the sacks of rubbish and I noticed something moving.

'At first I thought there was a rat, but on closer inspection I could see it was two inmates disguised as bags.'

Police chief Gerson Alves Machado said: 'I don't know how they expected someone to pick them up and carry them away. These are grown men and the bags are made of thin plastic.'

The men were arrested and may have their sentences extended, he added.

Authorities have now launched an inquiry into how the prisoners managed to get inside the sacks, which had been tied.

The Brazilian duo have a way to go before they equal the daring of Frenchman Pascal Payet, who has managed to break out of three prisons - each time using a helicopter.

Payet's first breakout was on October 12, 2001, when an accomplice landed a hijacked helicopter in Luynes prison in southern France and whisked the criminal away.

The second breakout was technically a break-in, when Payet organised the helicopter 'rescue' of three of his prison buddies from Luynes in 2003.

Albeit slowly learning their lesson, authorities decided to keep the wiley Payet away from Luynes when he was recaptured after the 2003 breakout - moving him from prison to prison.

But, on a clear day on July 14, 2007, Grasse prison in south-east France was visited by another hijacked helicopter, and Payet was once again flying free.