The plan was simple: walk into the shop, clear the cigarette shelf, run. Thirty cartons of assorted cigarettes from a shop on Sever-Jug Street in Bitola. The plan lasted less than a day.

On 24 July, officers from the Bitola police department arrested 35-year-old G.Z. and 29-year-old A.J., both from Bitola, suspected of committing aggravated theft that same day. A search of the home they were using turned up the stolen cigarettes, which were returned to the shop owner.

Then comes the part that turns a local theft into a different story altogether. An identity check revealed that 35-year-old G.Z. was wanted under a warrant - he had previously escaped from Prilep Prison, where he was serving an eight-month sentence. So a man on the run from prison carried on his career in the neighbouring town, on a named street, during business hours.

After his arrest he was taken back to the prison in Prilep to serve out the remainder of his sentence. Charges over the new theft will follow for both men, the Interior Ministry said.

The police did their job fast and completely - one day, goods recovered, fugitive arrested. The question is not for the Bitola police. The question is how a man got from a locked facility to a cigarette shelf in another town at all, and how long it took before anyone noticed he was gone. An eight-month sentence is not life. A prison you can walk out of is not a prison, it is an address.