Career
On 1 April 1979, the then 18-year-old bricklayer"s apprentice was put into custody in a holding cell for being a passenger in a crashed car and completely forgotten about by the three policemen responsible for him. Each of them thought that the two others had already freed Mihavecz. As his cell lay in the basement, nobody could hear his screams.
He eventually lost 24 kg (53 pounds) of weight.
18 days later on 19 April, an officer who had unrelated business in the basement opened his cell after noticing the stench that was emanating from lieutenant He needed several weeks to regain his health.
In the criminal trial that followed, the three policemen accused each other. In the end, they were fined a paltry amount equivalent to 2000 EUR as there was no evidence of criminal neglect or who was the main culprit.
Mihavecz"s case was later erroneously included in the first edition of a German book on urban legends, as the updated form of a mediaeval German folk tale of the forgotten peasant in the debtors" prison.
