This story is so sad it is almost funny.

A prisoner in the US state of Kentucky was mistakenly freed after a phoney fax ordering his release was sent from a nearby grocery store.

One would think that all the money and time being spent on the prison system in America would have anticipated this sort of attack vector.

The fax ordering his release claimed to be from the state supreme court, but was riddled with spelling errors and had no letterhead.

Hard to argue that spelling should be the litmus unless someone can confirm that the court is religious about spelling, let alone grammar. Likewise, checking the source of the fax is useful if it is consistent enough to check and verify. Yet it is not terribly hard for someone to spoof the ID. What kind of grocery store has a fax available anyway?

The prison’s director said their policies do not require them to check the source of faxes.

“It’s not part of a routine check,” said Greg Taylor, “but certainly, in hindsight, that would perhaps have caused somebody to ask a question.”

Mr Taylor said spelling mistakes are common on court documents.

Well, exactly. If the normal routine is just noise, hard to tell someone to look for an attack signal. You generally want things to operate the other way around.

I think the real kicker of the whole story is the fact that the prisoner was just sitting at home, practically waiting for someone to find him:

Police found Rouse two weeks later at his mother’s house after prison authorities realised their mistake.

It took them two weeks to realize it was a mistake or to find the 19 year old sitting at home?