HAIL: A man who was arrested for scaling a mobile telephone communications pylon off the Hail-to-Al-Jouf highway has told officials that he was “only having a look around for someone to help him get his car out of the sand”. According to Al-Watan Arabic daily, the 30-year-old teacher was spied climbing up the service ladder of the pylon and brought down by police before being taken into custody in Jabh, some 100 km to the northwest of Hail. Officials were reportedly concerned the individual was attempting to commit suicide. While a Hail Police official confirmed the “stuck-in-the-sand” hypothesis, a Traffic Police source that wished not to be named described the teacher as “suffering from mental problems”. “Relatives of the man were contacted and brought in and they said he had previously had a car accident which led to him suffering from mental disturbances,” the source told Al-Watan. He said, however, that traffic police had first come across a driverless Chevrolet Caprice stuck in sand next to the highway, and as they sought to locate its owner they spotted the man climbing the nearby pylon. “They managed to persuade him to descend,” he said. “He told them he'd gone up to see if there was anyone around who could help him get his car out of the sand.”
