Man, 87, escapes a care home 'full of old people'


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When spending your twilight years in a residential care home, you would expect life to be a little slower and certainly more sedate.

However one man has proved you're never too old to throw caution to the wind and live dangerously.

Raffaele Panicucci stunned the Italian authorities when he made his escape from a residential care home - at the age of 87.

Describing his home as a place 'full of old people', :huh: the pensioner fled the home in the middle of the night, making his great escape in his trusty electric wheelchair.

He was found two hours later trying to drive the contraption down a busy motorway.

When police rescued the man, he told officers he was bored with life in the care home, in Montemarciano, Italy.

Mr Paniucci, was unharmed by the experience, waited until the early hours of the morning to make his escape as it was quieter, and there were not many staff on duty in the hope that no one would notice he was gone.

He said: 'It's full of old people. I could not stand it any more.

'I just had to get out of there. If I stayed there any longer it would have driven me completely crazy and I don't want them to send me back.

'Maybe people think I am crazy for escaping, but trust me, there I was going even more crazy.

'Everyday is the same. There is no adventure and I just had to get out and get some space of my own.

'I may have lost my mobility but I have not lost my nerve and my sense of adventure.'

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I hear it's a terrible experience, being trapped in a facility, surrounded by other people in various states of cognitive and physical decay, some of whom can't independently do anything but mumble or lay down, waiting to die.

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