EDMONTON — Looking for escaped convicts? Try an escape room.
That was the scenario earlier this week when two female prisoners jumped a fence and went on the lam from the Edmonton Institution for Women.
Twenty-four hours later the pair wandered into SideQuests Adventures, a downtown Edmonton entertainment complex where people pay to be put into a themed room and figure out how to escape by solving puzzles.
Co-owners Rebecca and Jonathan Liaw say the women started asking "pretty typical" questions about what an escape room is, how it worked, and if they could see one.
Rebecca said there was nothing unusual about the encounter until a police officer walked in and asked if two women had come in without an appointment.
Jonathan said the officer asked which room the women were in, then called for backup, waiting briefly for four more officers to show up.
“They were arrested and walked straight out very quietly after that," said Rebecca. "Not exactly what I expected when they wanted to know about escape rooms.”
Police said later the two were in police custody, but would be returned to the prison on the city's west end. They had been tipped to their presence downtown by a member of the public.
Police had warned that Kelsie Laine Mast, 23, and Samantha Faye Toope, 20, are violent with a history of weapons offences and cautioned people should not approach them.
