SIMI VALLEY : Police Recapture Teen Escape Artist

A teen-age suspect who slipped out of his handcuffs at the Simi Valley Police Station on Tuesday night failed to give officers the slip a second time around Wednesday, authorities said.

The 17-year-old Simi Valley boy, taken into custody on suspicion of using a stolen credit card, had escaped after being handcuffed to a chair in an empty report room about 11 p.m. Tuesday, Lt. Tony Harper said.

On Wednesday, police staked out Simi Valley High School after receiving a tip that the boy planned to meet a student there, Harper said.

Harper said the suspect, who does not attend the school, left the campus about 3 p.m. in a student’s vehicle headed west on Cochran Street near Tapo Canyon Road. As police prepared to stop the car, the boy fled on foot.

Officers Corey Ward and Dan Hampson chased him into the adjacent condominium complex, where they took him into custody, Harper said.

This time, the youth was placed in a holding cell at the station. Police expected to take him to juvenile hall in Ventura.

The previous night, an attendant at a Chevron gas station on Erringer Road called police to report a customer who tried to use a stolen credit card, Harper said. A patrol officer arrived and took the boy into custody.

Harper, noting that the investigation was continuing, said police did not know how the boy slipped out of his handcuffs.

The name of the officer who left him alone in the report room was not disclosed.