Prison escapes: Tools, tricks, helicopters or strolling out the door

Prison officials and law enforcement in New York state are scrambling after two men convicted of murder used power tools to hack through walls to make a brazen escape.

Here's a quick glimpse at some recent escapes that relied on tools, tunnels, tricks and even helicopters.

Tools and tunnels

The hunt is still on for the two most recent escapees, convicted killersDavid Sweat, 34, and Richard Matt, 48, who broke out of theClinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y.

According to The Associated Press, the pair of convicted killersreportedly "cut through the steel wall at the back of their cells, crawled down a catwalk, broke through a brick wall, cut their way into and out of a steam pipe, and then sliced through the chain and lock on a manhole cover outside the prison."

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How they got the tools and whether employees or contractors helped them are major questions as investigators try to establish how they brokeout of the maximum-security section of the upstate New York prison.

Anotherbreakout that drew headlineshappened in Mexico in 2012, when more than 100 inmates escaped using a tunnel.

The tunnel, which was 6.4 metres long and 1.2 metres across "had been there for months,"Coahuila Attorney General Homero Ramossaid.

Tricks

Inmates have also tried to scam their way out of prison, using tricksto gain their freedom. In 2013, two convicted killers were briefly free in Florida after using phoney papersthat said they had been given an early release.

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Aconvicted murderer escaped a Louisiana prison by packing himself in a pallet full of mailbags.More recently, a man convicted of fraud charges in the U.K. made up a fake websiteand sent an email posing as a court clerk to the prison. The email included bail instructions and the man spent three days outside before turning himself in, the BBC reported.

Helicopters

One of the more dramaticCanadian escapes in recent years unfolded in Quebec in June 2014, whenthree inmates soared out of the yard of a Quebec City-areadetention centre in ahelicopter. The escape (which didn't last long the inmates were arrested in Montreal) prompted tighter security at several Quebec detention centres.

The most recent helicopter case was not a first,even in Quebec. Two inmates were quickly tracked down after using ahijackedhelicopter to escape a Quebec jail in 2013.

In Greecein 2009, an inmate escaped from prison by helicopterfor the second time.

Walking out sometimes with help

Some prisoners in lower-security facilities have optedfor the more direct route of hopping a wall, walking out the door or climbing out a window.

Francis Boucher, son of aHells Angels kingpin, was recentlyable to walk out of a Quebec jail months before his sentence for uttering death threats against police was completed. Boucher was back in jail facing additional charges not long after the apparent "administrative error" that led to the wrong Boucherbeing released.

Boucher, who surrendered to prison after a few days out, in Marchfaced three new charges related to the early exit. His lawyer has argued his 'escape' was amistake. Correctional officials were investigating butexactly how it unfolded is not yet clear.

In 2014, convicted killer Robert Gaudetteescaped from a federal detention centre. It's believed he climbed out a window of the minimum-security facility in Laval, Que.

Another way out of prison is with the help of those meant to keep inmates locked up.

A B.C. prison guard was handed a sentence of more than three years for his role in helping an inmate dressed as janitor escapein 2008.

Paul Buck, author ofPrison Break: True Stories of the World's Greatest Escapes,toldCBC'sAnna MariaTremontiin a 2014 interview that inmates looking to escape often make the attempt when they are being shuttled from one spot to another.

• Listen to Paul Buck talk about famous prison breaks on CBC Radio'sThe Current

"In the olden days, it used to be over the wall, of course, and under the wall, which is what all our imaginations play with," he said.

That still happens, Buck said, but a weak link"always will be in transit, when you'rebeing taken from one prison to another prison, or when you're being taken from the prison to the courthouse or something like that."

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