3 Hitchhiking Escapees Pick the Wrong Ride

Three of four escapees from a Calabasas juvenile detention camp eluded a search party Monday only to be captured 1 1/2 hours later by two carloads of probation officers who spotted them hitchhiking on Malibu Canyon Road, authorities said.

The teen-agers were arrested about 9:30 p.m. after they escaped from Camp Gonzales and eluded a search by 11 sheriff’s deputies, five probation officers and two park rangers assisted by a dog and two helicopters, said Sheriff’s Deputy Lawrence Brambles.

One youth slipped away when the probation officers stopped along Malibu Canyon Road for the hitchhikers and evaded a second search, Brambles said.

The escapees were serving sentences for charges ranging from receiving stolen property to burglary and grand theft, Brambles said.

The boys apparently used a makeshift key to slip their handcuffs off, then ran from a van in the camp parking lot.

The first search was called off at 8 p.m. because of darkness and dense brush, Brambles said, and the second search lasted about two hours.

The three teen-agers got about 2 1/2 miles before they were captured, he said.