A German prisoner made his great escape by mailing himself via FedEx.

Hans Lang, a 42-year-old drug dealer, hid in the laundry room until other inmates had finished work and, when the coast was clear, he bundled himself up in dirty bed linen inside the large FedEx box.

The package was then loaded onto a van and driven through the prison gates. The fugitive is understood to have waited until the driver made his next stop before getting out of the box, picking the lock on the back of the van and running off into nearby woods.

The escape was uncovered when the driver saw the empty box and realized somebody had picked the lock to his van - from the inside.

Life imitating art?

Ananova