POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. -- The escape of two men from the Mid-Orange Correctional Facility in Warwick, N.Y., sure was news to police. They read about it in the local newspaper.
And the more they read, the more certain they became that the two men they had arrested Saturday morning following a traffic accident were the escapees.
The pair caught by Poughkeepsie police following the accident had been ordered held on $100 bail each on charges of disorderly conduct.
What the arresting officers did not know, was that they had captured two escaped convicts.
Neither did their commanding officer -- until someone brought in the local paper about 10:30 a.m., and there, on the back page, was the story.
Police said they were never notified of the escape.
A spokesman at the medium-security prison declined comment on the apparent breakdown in communication.
Mid-Orange Deputy Superintendent of Security Joseph Perrin also said it was unclear exactly how the two men escaped, or when, but that an investigation was under way.
The police, not seeking to compound the communication error, dutifully called the prison officials and asked if they would like to have their two inmates back.
State Police said they sure would and took Kenneth Wright, a 29-year-old attempted burglar, back to his cell. The other escapee, Herbert Masset, 26, had been bailed out by his father.
But dad wasn't looking to really free his son.
He took him back to the state jail.
Masset, who was serving time for weapons posession and possession of stolen property, turned himself in.
Both men were awaiting transfer to a more secure facility. They were also to be charged for the escape.