Ernest Raney opened up his pawn shop business in Harrison, Arkansas, USA, recently and heard strange sounds coming from his chimney. “I’m still in disbelief,” he explained, “When we came into work, I opened the door up and heard some sounds, I thought maybe something got lodged in there.”

He was right… it was a man.

The not-so-clever, would-be burglar, was Michael Wayne Case, 38, who shouted abusively at Mr. Raney and his wife, saying that he had fallen into the chimney by mistake when he was out for a walk. A difficult trick as even if he did find an excuse for walking on the roof, the hole at the top of the chimney is only ten and a half inches wide (approx 27 cm)!

The emergency services were called and after Mr. Case (maybe his first name should be ‘Head’) started being abusive to them too. He was eventually freed and immediately started to fight with police officers.

The shop owner took the abuse all in his stride, “his mouth was real violent, he cursed and basically used foul language that I don’t repeat,” said Mr. Raney, whose wife Marie was the one who called the police.

Marie Raney summed up, “Chimneys don’t go straight down,” she said, “He didn’t know chimneys. Even if he could have reached the shop, he wouldn’t have been able to get out due to the alarm and security. He wasn’t thinking,” she concluded.

The police agreed that Head Case was an idiot and duly arrested him and charged him with commercial burglary and resisting arrest.