REBEL RETIREES

Elderly Couple Uses Morse Code to Escape Secure Assisted Living Facility

The husband and wife team, who suffer from dementia and Alzheimer’s, were reportedly found wandering along a road after using some military expertise to bust out.

An elderly husband and wife duo living in an assisted living facility in Tennessee caused quite a stir last month after busting out of a secure unit using Morse code, The Tennessean reports. The pair, who has not been identified, suffer from dementia and Alzheimer’s and were living in a part of the Lebanon facility with an electronic door lock. But they baffled staffers after vanishing from the premises, leaving employees wondering how they could have possibly gotten past the secure door with an electronic keypad. Documents from the Tennessee Department of Health show that after the couple was found wandering along a nearby road following their escape, the man confessed to staffers that he “previously worked with Morse code in the military” and had simply deciphered the door code by listening closely to the sounds it made when employees used it. The facility was hit with a $2,000 fine as a result of the couple’s getaway, and it has since changed its door codes.