This End Up

Further to yesterday’s post, the idea of packing oneself into a crate and travelling covertly to another land is not without appeal.

Even I, a tall man, quite like the idea and I don’t even have much to escape at the moment. I just like an adventure and good deal. Besides, can’t be much worse than Ryanair.

All of this has, of course, reminded me of the Welsh teenager Brian Robson, who mailed himself home in a crate from Australia in 1965. He described the experience as “quite horrific,” taking four days and frequently being stored upside down. Robson’s box was redirected to the US, where he was found and then grilled by the FBI before being repatriated to London (so it sort-of worked).

And then Wikipedia has a list of others who have achieved (or failed) similar feats:

[Athlete and smuggler] Reg Spiers mailed himself from Heathrow Airport, London, to Perth Airport, Western Australia, in 1964. His 63-hour journey was spent in a box made by fellow British javelin thrower John McSorley. Spiers spent some time outside his container in the cargo hold of the plane and suffered from dehydration [by the time] he was offloaded onto the tarmac of Bombay Airport. He arrived in Perth undetected and returned home to Adelaide.

Charles McKinley (age 25) shipped himself from New York City to Dallas, Texas in a box in 2003. He was attempting to visit his parents and wanted to save on the air fare by charging the shipping fees to his former employer. However, he was discovered during the final leg of his journey having successfully travelled by plane.

Did you catch that part? McKinley “saved on the air fare by charging the shipping fees to his former employer.” What a legend.

An inmate (age 42) serving a seven-year drug conviction sentence in Germany escaped from a prison by climbing into a box in the mail room which was picked up by a courier in 2008.

Hooray!

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For arguably more practical ways to escape, try my book I’m Out. Also still available are bundles of New Escapologist in print (1-7 and 8-13) or PDF (1-7 and 8-13).