Prison Guards Leave Keys In Van, 8 Inmates Escape

Eight prisoners escaped from a prison van, after the guards who were transporting them left the keys inside when they exited.

The eight inmates were free for a few hours, before they were finally caught and returned to their Oklahoma penitentiary. The group were parked outside of a hospital when the incident occurred.

They were being transported by a private prison company to a new jail, when the guards left the keys inside the van, which was still-running.

The inmates were originally taken to the hospital after one of them became ill. This saw the employees of the private correctional firm decide to take the prisoner to a medical facility in Weatherford, which is an hour away from Oklahoma City.

Guards then ran out of the van and immediately began to search for help for at least one of the prisoners, however it has been speculated that another of those incarcerated feigned illness too.

However, this left an opportunity for the other prisoners to kick down an interior partition, which blocked them from accessing the steering wheel, and then driving off.

Police then started their man-hunt for the eight missing criminals. However, they soon caught six of the prisoners, and they then apprehended the other two by Tuesday evening.

The stolen van was found just under a mile away from the hospital, and with the help of police helicopters and dogs officers were soon able to locate the runaway prisoners.

Louis Flowers, an assistant to the Weatherford police chief, told local media that they went door-to-door searching for those who had escaped.

Police even decided to shut down Southwestern Oklahoma State University, as police looked through every room, but they soon reopened the facility once they were done.

Officers didn’t release any information regarding the escaped inmates’ crimes.

[Image via Nadezhda Sundikova/Shutterstock]