One evening in April last year, when Mr Wu and his wife were watching television in their bedroom upstairs, police climbed up a ladder, through a window and took him away.

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He said the firefighters placed a ladder up to the window and brought the man to safety.

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Gary Taggart described seeing McElhill at an upstairs window but refusing to climb out and come down a ladder.

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The baby had been either murdered or killed accidentally after being snatched from his crib and, in the dark, still in bedclothes, carried out a window of the second-story nursery and down a makeshift ladder to the ground while the nurse and mother were occupied in their ordinary evening activities in another part of the house.

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Michael: I've got a ladder here mate and I've smashed the window.

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Firefighters from Barmouth arrived within four minutes and were able to rescue the family from a first floor window using a ladder.

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In 1994, thieves brought a ladder to a window at the National Gallery on the first day of the Olympics in Lillehammer and took the work, leaving a note in its place thanking the museum for its lousy security.

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