Chocolate bar ends hostage situation in Irish prison
Chocolate can do great things.
The latest amazing attribute of the sweet treat: peacekeeper.
Media outlets in Ireland, including the Irish Post, report that a five-hour standoff with hostages at Midlands Prison in Ireland was brought to a peaceful end when one of two inmates agreed to trade his weapons for a chocolate bar.
A Mars bar specifically.
The incident began Saturday afternoon when two prisoners — one of them armed — took a third inmate hostage and barricaded themselves in a cell. A fourth inmate was in the cell but not connected to the standoff.
Hostage negotiators and other specialists were called in to work out a peaceful solution.
Luckily, the armed hostage taker agreed to lay down his weapons in exchange for a Mars bar.
“Staff responses and the incident was successfully resolved,” a spokesman for the Irish Prison Service told the Post. “No staff were injured. Prisoners involved received only minor injuries.
“The Director General has commended all staff involved in ensuring that this incident was successfully resolved.”
By the way, the European version of a Mars bar contains caramel and nougat coated with milk chocolate — similar to a Milky Way.
Chris Pastrick is a TribLive digital producer. An Allegheny County native, he began working for the Valley News Dispatch in 1993 and joined the Trib in 1997. He can be reached at cpastrick@triblive.com.
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