1968 The so-called savings bank thief Pitten escapes from prison at the Wiener Neustadt district court. The 25-year-old uses a screw from his bed to release a bar mounted vertically in the cell’s window. To save time, he takes off his robe, fills it with straw and puts the “doll” on the bed. For two weeks he plays cat and mouse with the police. He is finally caught on a train near St. Pölten. The case goes down in Austrian criminal history – not because of the escape attempt, but because a video recorder was first used in the bank to reconstruct the crime.
In November 1971 Dramatic scenes take place in Krems-Stein prison. Three prisoners take four hostages in prison. In a letter they demand, among other things, the provision of an escape vehicle and 100,000 shillings in small notes. They don’t get the money, but they get the car. The fact that the inmates were released from prison divides opinions. Two men were arrested in Vienna just days after the escape, the third just two weeks later. He was hiding in the apartment of the mother of a fellow Stone prisoner. The old woman was probably so intimidated that she didn’t inform the police.
Escape through a 40 centimeter wide sewage shaft
1986 Stein’s prison is once again the scene of a spectacular escape. Four prisoners open a hole in the wall with an iron bar, pass through the hole to an equipment room diagonally below and from there reach an inner courtyard that at the time was considered escape-proof. Men provide counter-evidence. They pass through a sewage shaft just 40 centimeters wide and emerge on the other side of the prison wall, through a manhole cover. Until then, experts thought this was impossible.
An action by two prisoners in July was extremely bold 1987 once again in Krems-Stein prison. With a self-made hook, you climb from the first to the second floor and then to the roof, climb 90 meters up the gutter and rappel down the south facade. A security guard spots them but fires only a warning shot and not a targeted shot, which would mean the men would fall and die.
“Pumpgun Ronnie” bounces out the window
1988 One of the largest manhunts is taking place in Austria. Bank robber and murderer Johann Kastenberger – he wore a Ronald Reagan mask during the robberies and was therefore called Pumpgun Ronnie by the media – jumps out of the interrogation room window in Vienna, steals several cars and disappears for days. The case ends with a confrontation on the west highway. Kastenberger commits suicide.
2004 A 19-year-old prisoner takes advantage of a visit to the hospital in Neunkirchen to escape. He is being treated for a hand injury when he suddenly threatens the doctor with a pocket knife and takes her and others hostage. After many back and forths, he decides to run away, forces a driver in the hospital parking lot to take him to the SCS and apparently wants to disappear into the crowd. As the photos are already circulating, private detectives take notice of him. The man is arrested by plainclothes police officers in an electronics store.
Arrives in the port city of Alicante, in southeastern Spain 2005 a prisoner Stein who escapes while being treated at the Lainz Hospital in Vienna. He is said to have mixed knockout drops into his guard’s coffee and fled with his wife, who visited him in hospital. On his 55th birthday he was arrested by Spanish investigators in an apartment.
Arrest at kebab stand
2009 A prisoner’s escape from Vienna’s Josefstadt prison ends at a kebab stand in Gaming (Scheibbs district). The man escaped while doing electrical work outside the prison. He reportedly stayed at the kebab for two hours. When a police car arrives, he tries to flee into a forest, but is stopped.
Run through a hole in the prison laundry bathroom 2010 four prisoners from Hirtenberg prison (Baden district) escaped. The result is structural measures. The wet rooms will be moved elsewhere.
Rope in Wiener Neustadt 2014 two prisoners with a garden hose from the officers’ kitchen on the first floor. They jump from a height of five meters onto a gravel bed and escape. The hose came from an employee’s bathroom.
2015 A 35-year-old Stein prisoner from Mauer State Hospital escapes through a bathroom window. The man who should have served a five-year prison sentence is overstepping the bars. Investigators believe he had helpers. The building’s exterior fence and the wire fence in front of the window were reportedly previously opened.
The most recent incidents in November 2023 happened during hospital visits. At Wiener Neustadt State Hospital, a 16-year-old escaped from Gerasdorf prison, and in Krems, a 35-year-old from Krems-Stein escaped following the same pattern. It is also known that a Schwarzau inmate tried to escape; she also took advantage of a visit to the hospital in Wiener Neustadt to escape. In Vienna, a prisoner escapes during treatment at the General Hospital. Only on Friday did the Ministry of Justice confirm two attempts to escape a prisoner at the beginning of October and also in November – more about this in Prisoner stopped during two escape attempts (noe.OF.at; December 1, 2023) .
Enhanced Safety Precautions
In response to a request from noe.ORF.at, the Ministry of Justice highlighted that “medical escorts will only be carried out under special safety precautions until further notice”. There is a written instruction for all prisons that escorts must have their arms tied behind their backs. On 15 November, a key operation was carried out in 21 prisons across the country and several detention rooms were searched. The ministry said it was looking for items that could be used to prepare for escapes.
However, prison breaks and escapes during outside engagements are the exception. In 2022, 37,900 so-called guarded escorts were carried out across the country, 17 prisoners escaped while working or on commitments outside the prison and two prisoners managed to escape from the closed area of the prison.