Escaped prisoner - ankle bracelet key to buy cheaply online

The prisoner, who was forcibly freed during a doctor's visit in Essen, was wearing ankle bracelets that could be opened with a key from the Internet. According to information from the dpa news agency, North Rhine-Westphalia's Justice Minister Benjamin Limbach (Greens) confidentially informed the state parliament's legal committee that the shackles did not have an individual lock. Rather, a universal key that also works for identical models was suitable. You can buy such keys online for less than 10 euros.

The phenomenon first became public in February when an arrested man opened his handcuffs in Bavaria. At that time it emerged that the police in North Rhine-Westphalia were using the same handcuff model.

In mid-October, two JVA employees accompanied the 34-year-old from the Essen JVA, who had multiple convictions and had his feet tied, to an appointment at a doctor's office in the city center. In the stairwell, two masked men overpowered the two judicial officers, and then all three fled.

The prisoner's ankle cuffs were opened

Already in April, in a response from the North Rhine-Westphalia state government to an FDP request in the state parliament, it was made public that the judiciary did not use handcuffs with a universal lock, but rather “a comparable restraint system as an ankle bracelet”. The pretrial prisoner was wearing these shackles when he was freed.

It is still being determined whether the prisoner's helpers got the key themselves on the Internet or whether a prison employee helped them. According to the ministry, no counterfeit keys were found at least in the home of an officer at the Essen prison who was arrested on suspicion of corruption.

When asked what consequences would be drawn, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice told the dpa that the incident on October 14th had given rise to an overall review of the processes and precautions taken when executing prisoners. “The question of bondage is also taken into account.”

dpa/gold