Police use olive oil to rescue naked man from clothes washer

January 6, 2014 3:45 PM By Cora Van Olson
Emergency responders arrive to free man from washer.

It was all fun and games this weekend in Australia, when a naked man, 20, decided to surprise his wife by hiding in the clothes washer and got stuck. She was no doubt very surprised, but even so, police advise against ever getting inside household appliances. Also there are now 1001 uses for olive oil.

Police in Mooroopna, northern Victoria, Australia, were summoned to a home around 5:15 p.m. on January 4, 2014, after a friendly game of hide-and-seek ended in a call to emergency services. It seems that the man wanted to surprise his wife by cleverly hiding in the washing machine in his birthday suit. No word on whether the couple was playing naked hide-and-seek, or if that was part of the surprise.

In any case, the surprise was on him, when his wife found him, he couldn’t get out.

According to Sergeant Tim Gleeson of the Mooroopna police, “ ”He was trying to surprise his missus and became stuck.” It took firefighters, police, Search and Rescue and volunteers from the State Emergency Service, 20 minutes to grease the man out of the top loader with olive oil. ”They greased him up until he was free,” said Gleeson. He did not mention whether alcohol was a factor.

Police Sergeant Michelle De Araugo said, “It was just a game gone wrong. It would be fair to say the gentleman was very embarrassed.”

The man was reportedly stuck in there pretty good, and EMTs were concerned for his health, so they had him admitted to a hospital for observation.

In an interview with ABC news First Constable Luke Ingram concluded, “My advice would be for people not to climb into appliances. Obviously, that causes a number of issues as we’ve seen on the weekend.”

Ingram was referring to another incident over the weekend in which a Utah girl got stuck in a washing machine, during a game of hide and seek. Emergency responders got her out with peanut butter. She had her clothes on, and is still so embarrassed that her name is not being released