Half-Naked Prisoner Kidnaps 3 Women

A burglary suspect being driven to jail Saturday broke a window in a moving police car, leaped onto the Costa Mesa Freeway, lost his pants and kidnapped three women before being arrested again.

No one was injured in the wild escape attempt, and by evening, Abraham Josh Derian, 25, of Montebello, was in the Orange County Jail.

“He was desperate,” said Newport Beach Police Lt. Mike Jackson.

Police initially arrested Derian at 3:30 a.m. on Balboa Island, where they observed him trying to match what turned out to be a set of stolen car keys to the right Mercedes Benz. The keys, along with a purse, had been taken in a home burglary.

About 11 a.m., police were driving Derian and a suspect in an unrelated crime to the county jail. Derian, police said, managed to escape from leg restraints. Then he slipped his handcuffed arms from behind his back to the front.

Police said Derian lunged forward, broke out the passenger-side window and dove onto the northbound lanes of the freeway while the officer behind the wheel tried to pull to the shoulder.

“He hit the ground, rolled, and lost his pants,” Jackson said. “He was naked from the waist down, and he took off running.”

Police using dogs searched an industrial area, but couldn’t find Derian.

Meanwhile, police allege Derian accosted three women in a catering truck, grabbed a knife from the counter and forced them to drive to an auto-parts store in Buena Park.

There, he ordered one hostage to go inside and buy a bolt cutter. A clerk said they didn’t have bolt cutters and suggested Home Depot down the street.

“I’m driving to Home Depot,” the woman told the clerk. “Call police.”

He did and La Habra police took Derian into custody.

“Bizarre?” said Newport Beach Lt. John Klein. “Unfortunately, it is true . . . I wish it weren’t.”