Fugitive Reaches the Right Number for Trip to Jail

Fugitive Daniel Andron liked to keep in touch with his alleged victims and with the police who were looking for him, authorities said, but he apparently made one call too many.

Several months after he fled the Detroit area, Andron, 26, a construction worker, was arrested in Anaheim last Friday after he called a police detective in Illinois, officials said.

“He called and said, ‘You’ll never catch me,’ and that if we sent the FBI after him, they’d come back in a box,” Prospect Heights Detective Alan Steffen said.

Steffen kept Andron on the phone for 45 minutes and was able to have the call traced to a house in Anaheim, where Andron, a man wanted in two states, was arrested.

Police said Andron is now in Orange County Jail. It was not known whether he has been arraigned. Anaheim Police Lt. Vince Howard said that there were conflicting reports about how the arrest was carried out and that he could not offer details.

Last July, Andron was accused of felony theft of $4,500 from a roommate. In September, Michigan authorities charged him with aggravated rape, but Andron eluded capture and returned to the Chicago area.

Steffen said Andron broke into his former boss’ home and beat the man and his wife during an apparent robbery attempt.

Orange County authorities said that between 1985 and 1986, Andron was arrested several times in Anaheim: on suspicion of auto theft, of driving without a license, of failure to pay a $50 fine and of kidnaping. The disposition of the criminal charges against Andron in Anaheim could not be immediately determined.

The kidnaping arrest was in connection with the 1985 abduction of a 15-year-old Costa Mesa girl who was taken from the campus of a private school in Anaheim. Andron was arrested after a rush-hour chase through North Orange County.

After his most recent legal troubles in Michigan and Illinois, Andron disappeared, but he periodically made calls to alleged victims and to Steffen, the Illinois detective said.