Fugitive ends up behind bars after the mayor of an Italian town spotted him posing among the statues in a Christmas crib.
A man on the run from police in Italy was arrested on Saturday in Galatone, in the southern Puglia region, after he was discovered posing as a statue in a large-scale Nativity scene.
The man, a 38-year-old from Ghana, was first spotted in the crib scene by none other than the town’s mayor, Flavio Filoni, according to local news outlet LeccePrima.
Filoni was passing by the Nativity scene in Piazza Santissimo Crocifisso when he noticed the incredibly lifelike figure, whose realistic features made him initially consider contacting the organisers to congratulate them.
Upon closer inspection however, the mayor realised that the figure was in fact a man and not a statue.
Filoni then called on another town official to assist him in persuading the man to leave the Nativity scene.
They reportedly met resistance from the man who, apparently confused, claimed the crib was his home.
After abandoning this idea the man entered the nearby church where he attempted to get undressed, by which stage the police intervened and took him to the station in Nardò.
It was there that the police discovered that the man had been issued with a nine-month prison order in Bologna for aggravated assault and resisting a public official.
He was arrested on the spot and taken to Lecce prison.
