A Louisiana sheriff is reportedly unsure how an escaped inmate stole and drove an unmarked police car 1,800 miles across the country, but claims it won’t happen again.
Benjamin Gottke, 43, was a trustee in the Tensas Sheriff’s Office kitchen when he acquired keys to an unmarked police vehicle last week and escaped, The Natchez Democrat reports.
Gottke, who had about nine months remaining on his sentence for simple burglary, was later arrested in Maine in on Saturday while attempting to enter Canada. He now faces charges of resisting arrest, simple escape and vehicle theft.
“This situation is going to make me rethink a lot of things with our trusty program and where we keep certain things,” Tensas Parish Sheriff Rickey Jones told the newspaper. “The jailer that was working that night said [Gottke] was acting normal, so we’re not sure what motivated him yet.”
