[UPDATED] The story went viral: Two elderly men broke out of a German nursing home over the weekend to attend one of Europe’s biggest heavy metal festivals, Wacken Open Air. When nursing staff discovered the two men were missing from their rooms, they contacted local police immediately.
According to the German news outlet Deutsche Welle, authorities later located the pair of elderly headbangers at 3 a.m. on festival grounds, however, they were initially reluctant to leave. After some coaxing, police were able to escort them home via taxi and a patrol car.
This year’s Wacken Open Air festival was attended by 75,000 people. No word on which acts the escapees were out to see.
UPDATE: Sadly – it appears the pair never actually made it to the festival…
Police say the two men were 58 and 59 years old and had left a home for people with mental issues to travel to the Wacken festival.
Festival goers called police Friday because of two “helpless, disoriented and intoxicated” men waiting for a bus home at 3 a.m. Police brought them to a first-aid station then, that morning, sent them home in a taxi arranged by the care home about 20 miles away.
photo credit: Axel Heimken