Authorities arrested a 29-year-old homeless man in California who tried to hide in a corn maze. Ryan Kenneth Watt was accused of repeatedly violating a restraining order filed by his ex-girlfriend and police went to a homeless camp to take him into custody. When officers arrived, Watt sprinted across a busy highway and ran into the Petaluma Pumpkin Patch corn maze.
The officers grabbed a map of the maze and began searching through the ten-foot tall stalks of corn. After six officers were unable to locate Watt, they called in a fixed-wing aircraft to do aerial surveillance, hoping to track him down.
"I've been to that maze myself, off duty with kids," said Lt. Ed Crosby of the Petaluma Police Department. "It's a great place to hide. It's very narrow. It takes a long time to get through it."
After two hours, the officers were about to end their search when they noticed a chicken coop they never checked.
"We worked our way methodically through it," Crosby said. "We covered the whole maze. We couldn't find him. The aircraft didn't see any movement. We were getting ready to close it down. Then one of our guys noticed the chicken coop."
Officers kicked down the door of the coop and took Watt into custody on suspicion of violating a restraining order and resisting officers performing their duties.
The corn maze was not open to the public when Watts ran inside. The maze was closed for a few hours after its scheduling opening while the officers concluded their investigation.