Staff ReporterPeanut butter was the secret behind a mass jailbreak of 12 prisoners – with one escaped convict remaining at large.
The group at Walker County Jail in Alabama, US, craftily used the spread – taken from prison sandwiches – to alter the number of an inmate’s cell door to a number identifying a door leading outside.
When an inmate then asked a newly-employed guard to open his cell’s door, the inexperienced prison guard – who was watching on closed-circuit camera from a control room – inadvertently opened the outside door.
The group subsequently fled outside at around 6.20pm local time on Sunday and used blankets to climb over the prison’s razor-wire fence in less than 10 minutes.
Despite eleven of the group being recaptured within eight hours, 24-year-old Brady Kilpatrick, who had been jailed on drugs charges, was still on the run on Monday.
A helicopter was being used to hunt the sole remaining fugitive while off-duty police officers were drafted in to help.
A $500 (£380) reward was offered for information leading to an arrest.
Of the group, who are aged between 18 and 30, two had been imprisoned on attempted murder charges.
Commenting on the unusual tactic used to fool the prison guard, local sheriff James Underwood said: “It may sound crazy, but these kinds of people are crazy like a fox.
“He thought he was opening the cell door for this man to go in his cell, but in fact he opened up the outside door.
“Escapes happen. We’ve got some evil people down here, and they scheme all the time to con us and our employees at the jail.
“You’ve got to stay on your toes. This is one time we slipped up. I’m not going to make any excuses.”