07/08/2026
Leon Gillespie, 26, climbed onto the roof of Ysbyty Glan Clwyd hospital in Wales on June 6.
He was wearing a black hooded robe, wielding a long, sharp blade, and there he stayed. Motionless. Staring intently at the main entrance, where patients, relatives, and medical staff came and went, unaware that someone was watching them from above with the exact silhouette of the Grim Reaper.
Fifty minutes passed like that. Four police patrols and a fire unit had to be deployed to convince him to come down. When he finally did, no one was injured, but questions remained unanswered: why would someone choose to dress as death and silently watch people who may be fighting for their lives inside?
His defense before the Llandudno Magistrates’ Court was almost as disturbing as the scene: he claimed that his costume represented a crow, not the Grim Reaper.
The judge did not fully believe him, but still fined him just £200 (around $269). Before this incident, Gillespie had already stolen food from two stores in the same city. The hospital, meanwhile, said it has a zero-tolerance policy toward this kind of behavior.
