A prisoner went on the run after smashing a light fitting and eating a lightbulb, according to Fairfax.
Dion King, 19, escaped custody while receiving treatment at Hawke's Bay Hospital accident and emergecy department Sunday evening.
"I told the guards what I'd done and they told me I shouldn't have done that. They said I had to go to hospital, so they took me to hospital," he told Fairfax. "I had X-rays and that. Then I saw an opportunity to run, so I did."
King then allegedly ran from the hospital, cut the chain on his handcuffs and spent five nights on the run.
He handed himself in this morning at the Hastings police station with his lawyer, according to Fairfax. He was still wearing his handcuffs.