Man Climbs Down Rope Made of Bedsheets From Hotel's Top Floor to Escape COVID Quarantine
An Australian man was arrested after he escaped a mandatory COVID-19 quarantine in a hotel by climbing four floors down a rope crafted of tied-together bedsheets, police said on Tuesday.
Travis Jay Myles, 39, was charged with failing to comply with direction and providing false/misleading information after he fled a temporary quarantine in Western Australia (WA), local news outlet ABC reported.
Myles was placed under quarantine on Monday at a hotel in Perth after he traveled to WA from Brisbane and failed to meet mandatory COVID-19 criteria to enter the state. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all travelers seeking to enter WA must complete a G2G pass, or an online application with information about health status and travel details.
But according to the Western Australia Police Force, Myles failed to present a G2G pass upon arriving to the state, and was therefore directed to temporarily quarantine overnight in a hotel. Following the quarantine, Myles was ordered to return to his hometown of Queensland, Australia.
"The G2G application was refused as it did not satisfy any exemption categories under existing restrictions for Queensland and he was issued with a direction to leave WA within 48 hours," the police statement read.
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However, around 12:45 a.m. on Tuesday, police alleged that Myles managed to climb out of the hotel window using a makeshift rope made of bedsheets. Photos shared by the police on Facebook show multiple tied-up sheets dangling from the fourth-story window.
Roughly eight hours after his escape, the man was found and arrested across town on Beaufort Street. Police said Myles was taken into custody and has completed a negative COVID-19 test.
According to ABC, Myles appeared in the Perth Magistrates Court via an audio-link later on Tuesday afternoon.
The 39-year-old did not apply for bail and will be kept in custody until his 14-day quarantine period is over in early August. This way, Myles will be able to appear in court in person, the news outlet reported.
Australia has maintained a relatively strict attitude toward addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. As of Tuesday, more than half of the country's 25 million people were placed under lockdown due a rise of new cases from the Delta variant.
South Australia became the latest to impose a seven-day lockdown after identifying five cases linked to a returned traveler, while neighboring Victoria extended a five-day until July 27, Reuters reported. In Sydney, where the latest Delta outbreak first began, residents are currently in their fourth week of a five-week lockdown.
The country has experienced a total of 32,129 cases and 915 deaths since the pandemic first began, according to Johns Hopkins University's tracker.
