Police: 2 men escape mental health care home to party near heavy metal festival in German town

GERMANY -- The story making social media rounds of two elderly men escaping their retirement home to attend Germany's largest heavy metal festival seemed too good to be true. And, alas, it was.

Itzehoe police spokesman Peter Berndt said Tuesday the two men were actually 58 and 59 and left a home for people with mental health issues to party Friday night in the town of Wacken, near the eponymous festival.

Festival-goers called police after finding the two "helpless, disoriented and intoxicated" waiting for a bus home at a main street stop after the buses had stopped running at 3 a.m. Saturday.

Police brought them to a first-aid station and then later in the morning sent them home in a taxi arranged by the care home about 30 kilometers (20 miles away).