A Brazilian inmate who had “I am a thief and an idiot” tattooed across his forehead escaped from jail just days before his release — getting him locked up for longer and in a maximum-security prison after handing himself in.
Ruan Rocha da Silva, 23, was one of seven inmates who escaped Sau Paulo’s Provisional Detention Center Belém 1 on Christmas Day after capturing prison officers, Folha de S.Paulo reported.
Silva – whose forehead was forcibly tattooed by two of his earlier victims — was just days away from ending his four-year sentence for yet another theft, the outlet said.
He appeared to regret his decision — and handed himself in to military police just two days later, the report said.
His telling head tattoo appeared to be mostly covered up or gone, according to a photo of him wearing a Mickey Mouse sweatshirt and in cuffs during his latest arrest.
He has had some of the ink surgically removed, but some letters are still visible, other photos showed. It was not immediately clear when he had the work done to hide it.
Silva was resentenced on Friday to serve out an extended prison term in a closed regime, or Brazil’s most restrictive form of incarceration, Folha de S.Paulo said, without specifying exactly how much extra time he got.
Silva was forcibly tattooed with the bizarre forehead ink by two men he tried to rob in 2017, according to an earlier Daily Beast report. Both men served time for inflicting serious bodily injury and illegal embarrassment, the report said.
Silva was then jailed in February 2019, when he stole a cell phone and money from two emergency room employees, the reports added.
He briefly escaped from custody in October of that year, but was listed as having “good” behavior before his latest short-lived jail break.