Missouri inmates remove sink, climb through wall to freedom

FARMINGTON, Mo. (AP) — Authorities are piecing together how five inmates escaped from the St. Francois County Jail.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the inmates escaped from the jail in Farmington on Tuesday evening. Chief Sheriff's Deputy Gregory Armstrong told the newspaper that the inmates got into a cell that was supposed to be closed off due to plumbing repairs, removed the sink and toilet, climbed through the wall and made it down from the roof using a ladder a contract had left standing against the building. Jail cameras that would have captured them leaving were down due to construction.

They then ran to an office building parking lot and somehow found a car with the keys in it and a full tank of gas.

“They just got lucky,” Armstrong said. “It's a black eye, of course, that we didn't want. Sometimes things happen.”

All five inmates have criminal rap sheets spanning 20 years.

The sheriff's department said in a statement that all five had been recaptured by mid-morning Saturday. One inmate was located in Missouri. The other four were apprehended in Ohio.