Ingenious Inmates Escape Big House—Caught at Pancake House

Ingenious Inmates Escape Big House—Caught at Pancake House

(NewsReady.com) – Breaking out of jail isn’t as easy as television shows make it look. It takes some real effort, and more often than not, the criminal fails. Surprisingly, two men in Virginia were successful — but their luck didn’t last long.

On March 20, guards discovered 43-year-old Arley V. Nemo and 37-year-old John M. Garza missing from their cells at the Newport News jail. The Newport News Sheriff’s Office began looking for the escapees just after 7 p.m., and it didn’t take long to find them.

Around 3:30 a.m., police tracked the men to an IHOP in Hampton, just seven miles away from the jail. They were arrested without any problems. Newport News Sheriff Gabe Morgan thanked the citizens who provided law enforcement with the tip they needed to catch the men. The sheriff said it reinforced the concept of “see something, say something.”

The sheriff’s office explained Nemo and Garza found a construction design in a wall. They used a metal object and toothbrush to essentially break through the structure until they were able to escape. The weakness the two men were able to exploit “presents itself throughout the facility. Now they have to identify all of the areas where it exists and fix it. Until that is done, the department refused to comment further on the specifics.

Nemo was being held in jail on charges including forgery, credit card larceny, credit card fraud, grand larceny, possession of burglary tools, contempt of court, and probation violation. Garza was incarcerated on charges of failure to appear, contempt of court, and probation violations. They will now both be charged with crimes related to the escape.

The two men weren’t the only ones who have escaped from a Virginia jail in recent months. In January, authorities in Tennessee arrested two men who’d broken out of the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail Authority. One of the men was a convicted murderer.

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