Rat Man of Rotherham

<div class="ds-headline" id="ds-headline">'Rat man' escapes in sewer</div><div class="ds-firstpara" id="ds-firstpara">A BURGLARY suspect on the run from police was so desperate to avoid capture he spent three hours hiding... in a sewer.
</div><div class="va-bodytext">The 20-year-old - dubbed the &quot;Rat Man of Rotherham&quot; by a police source - was wanted in connection with an aggravated break-in.
When officers tried to approach him at noon yesterday, he fled into a concrete culvert which runs into the River Don next to the town's Chapel on The Bridge.
A search of the town centre sewage system then swung into action involving police divers, officers on foot and firefighters.
The suspect evaded officers and did not emerge until almost 3pm in front of a startled pensioner in Doncaster Gate and made off.
Onlookers were amazed as the suspect, who had blonde hair, ran away in saturated and blackened clothes dripping with sewage.
Chris Farmer, a barman at Disraeli's pub, in Doncaster Gate, said: &quot;It was the kind of thing you only expect to happen on the television in programmes like The Bill.
&quot;He came out of the sewer outside the pub in front of an old man, who was gobsmacked. The youth's clothes were black and dripping.&quot;
The suspect had resurfaced half a mile from where he entered the culvert - which runs under part of the town centre, including Bridgegate and All Saints Square.
He hid and then make his escape despite the subterranean manhunt by police divers, who were assisted by Rotherham Council and firefighters.
The local authority supplied maps of the town's drainage system, and fire crews used specialist equipment to survey the sewers from ground level to try to locate the suspect.
The police team entered the culvert at one end and some officers also entered the drainage system via manholes in the town centre.
Huge crowds of curious shoppers watched as part of the town centre was sealed off while firefighters and underwater search team members removed manhole covers in Bridgegate and All Saints Square.
A police source said: &quot;We do not know how he managed to evade capture underground for so long, or know his way around the sewers so well. He must be the Rat Man of Rotherham.&quot;</div><div class="va-bodytext">
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. his mate must have said to him &quot;go thieving and bring back some brown.&quot;