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| For-profit Transport Van Hijacked |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 10/01/2001 |
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A van transporting 12 prisoners from a Cuyahoga County, Ohio, jail to upstate New York was hijacked last week by one of the prisoners in a failed escape attempt, police said. During a food stop, an officer and the driver of the van, which was operated by Extraditions International, a private company, went into a McDonald's restaurant, leaving a female officer to watch the prisoners. Police said one of the prisoners, Lawrence Tutt, 32, of Pueblo, Colo., overwhelmed the woman, jumped in the driver's seat and sped off. Police were able to stop the van after a brief chase and take all the prisoners into custody. Mentor police Lt. John Jaros said that his department has concluded that Tutt acted alone. Extraditions International is a Colorado-based company that transports prisoners between police jurisdictions. Nevada stopped using the company to transport prisoners after prisoners escaped from the company's vehicles twice during rest stops last year. Capt. K.V. Schilling, head of transportation for Extraditions International, said, 'We're still trying to figure out what happened' in Mentor. The prisoners are transported in handcuffs, leg irons and waist chains and have 'black boxes' attached to the chains to limit the mobility of their arms. 'We've had problems like every transport company has,' Schilling said. 'We all have escapes or problems.' But she said no state, including Nevada, has dropped the company's services because of concerns about escapes. Schilling said Nevada had other reasons for cutting ties with the company, but declined to elaborate. |
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