North Carolina escapee caught at Arkansas gas station
By: Import User
Updated: January 7, 2009
One of six escapees from a North
Carolina jail has been arrested in Arkansas because he couldn`t drive a truck with a manual transmission.
Matthew "Scooter" Shinault had trouble operating the stick shift at a gas station in Caddo Valley. Police Chief Hiram Latin was at the Exxon station to get a snack yesterday and noticed Shinault appeared scared. Latin confirmed that the truck had been
stolen and realized Shinault was one of six inmates missing from the Surry County Jail since Sunday.
Shinault and the other five inmates used a fingernail-clipper tied to a toothbrush handle to gouge a hole in the ceiling of their cellblock in the Surry jail.
They crawled along ductwork to the third-story roof and knotted their jumpsuits together to reach a lower roof where they could jump to the ground. Authorities believe that they all fled in their underwear.
Latin said that Shinault told him that he had picked up a hitchhiker who had given him some clothes.
