AN INMATE WHO escaped from a prison in Kentucky has turned himself in to authorities because the weather outside was too cold.

Robert Vick, 42, broke out of a minimum security prison in Lexington on Sunday.

The next day, he walked into a motel and asked the clerk to call police, saying he wanted to escape the weather.

“This was definitely of his own volition,” police spokeswoman Sherelle Roberts said, adding:

It’s cold out there, too cold to run around. I can understand why the suspect would turn himself in.

A ‘polar vortex’ of cold Arctic air has settled over large parts of the US, leading to freezing temperatures.

Vick would have been dressed in prison-issued khaki pants, a shirt and a jacket when he escaped, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Lisa Lamb said. Wind chill readings were minus-28° Celsius in Lexington on Monday.

The Lexington Fire Department treated Vick for hypothermia Monday evening, Roberts said. He was serving a six-year sentence for burglary and criminal possession of a forged instrument.

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