DURING A VISIT to Maynooth recently, Dublin magician Brian Daly left his car in the car park of a local national school.
A sign outside said the car park would be closed from 10.50am to 1.50pm, but when Brian returned at 9.15am, the gates were already locked with his car still inside.
What happened next was an epic escape along the lines of The Shawshank Redemption – and the whole story is now going viral on Facebook.
Brian went up to the school to ask about the mix-up, which is where things got hairy:
[The principal] explained that there was a board of management directive saying he couldn’t open the gates until 4pm. I asked how was I supposed to know when the sign says it’s open until 10.50am.
“I still don’t know why the board would want to keep the rule secret, and not change the time on the sign. Who knows what other secret rules they have?” Brian wrote.
Upon returning to the car park gates, he met three Italian men who had also lost their car to the ‘secret rules’.
They concocted an escape operation involving “a taxi driver, a hardware shop, a replacement lock, some bolt cutters and imagination”:
Two Italian members of our pack stood lookout, while the remaining Italian and I cracked open the old rusted lock. We didn’t want to get caught driving out.. so we did something [the principal] would never expect – we drove out the ENTRANCE gate. Genius!
After driving out, Brian and the Italian men replaced the old lock with the new one, gave the keys to the school secretary, and parted ways with a new friendship.
We still talk occasionally, but only using encrypted Whatsapp messages for fear of being under surveillance. We’re lying low for now, but we plan to meet and celebrate our escape once the heat is off.
I’ll finish here by saying a very real thank you. Thank you for locking me and those Italian lads in the car park. Due to you, we now have a friendship forged in the heat of battle.
Poetic. Brian and the Italian lads, take a bow.
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