Phones shot into prison with bow and arrow

updated 8:00 p.m. ET Nov. 27, 2004

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Authorities in Sweden arrested a man who shot mobile phones into the yard of a high-security prison with a bow and arrows, police said Saturday.

The 25-year-old man is charged with planning to aid a prison escape and could get up to a year in jail, police said.

The suspect, whose name was not released, taped two cell phones and a battery charger to three arrows, and fired them over the 12-foot wall into Mariefred prison outside Stockholm on Friday night, police spokeswoman Susanne Abrahamsson said.

The man was not spotted by guards when he fired the arrows, but was arrested after police found his car parked about 650 feet from the prison walls, with a bow hidden underneath it, she said. After the man returned to his car, police dogs traced his scent back to the prison wall, and guards were able to find the arrows in the prison yard, where inmates go for exercise.

It was unclear which inmates were supposed to receive the phones, Abrahamsson said.

Cell phones smuggled to inmates have played a vital role in three highly publicized prison breaks in Sweden between July and September. Police suspect the inmates used them to coordinate their escapes with accomplices on the outside. All the inmates who escaped in the three prison breaks — including from Mariefred prison — were recaptured within days.

Several prison employees were later charged with smuggling phones into the prisons, which has led to more frequent searches of all prison employees.

Using a bow to get phones into prison seems to be a new technique, Abrahamsson said.

“As far as I know, this is a first,” she said.

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