Escaped NYC inmate Yenchun Chen is found sleeping on a friend’s couch a month after he used bedsheets to rappel out of a hospital window
- Yenchun Chen, 44, was found sleeping on a friend’s couch in Flushing, Queens
- He had been on the run since August 9, when he escaped from custody
A prisoner who used bedsheets to escape from the fifth floor of a New York City hospital was finally caught sleeping on a friend’s couch Tuesday after a month on the run.
Yenchun Chen, a 44-year-old man who stands 6 feet tall and weighs 220 pounds, made a daring escape from Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital on August 9 by tying bedsheets together and rappelling from a fifth-floor window .
He was supposed to shower after convincing prison guards to take him to treat chest pains.
After abseiling from the hospital, he hitchhiked in a yellow cab to New Jersey and then disappeared.
Yenchun Chen, 44, who escaped from the fifth floor of a New York hospital using a rope made of bedsheets, was finally recaptured after a month on the run
The 6-foot, 250-pound man made a daring escape from Mount Sinal Beth Israel Hospital by tying bedsheets together and rappelling down from a fifth-floor window
He was found sleeping on a friend’s head in a second-floor apartment on 45th Avenue in Flushing, Queens
He could barely speak when he was found Tuesday morning sleeping on a friend’s couch in a second-floor apartment on 45th Avenue in Flushing, Queens, just a half-mile from his own address in Long Island City.
It’s unclear what led police to him, but when they met him he was so badly injured that he begged to be taken back to the hospital.
He is said to have suffered bruised ribs in the fall on August 9th.
Chen was arrested July 31 for criminal possession of a controlled substance. A report said he was awaiting his court date, which was scheduled for later in the month.
The man was tracked to New Jersey the next day after his escape. He also went to Virginia, where he has family and friends, and then back to Queens, where he recently couch-surfed at various friends’ homes, authorities told ABC News.
Chen was in the custody of the Correctional Facility at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center, 281 First Avenue, when he was released around 4:30 p.m. on August 9.
Chen was able to free himself from Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center at 281 First Avenue around 4:30 p.m. on August 9
The hulking prisoner had been in hospital since Friday after suffering from heart problems.
Chen was reportedly taking a shower when he escaped by tying bedsheets together and rappelling out a fifth-floor window.
When correctional officers checked on him, they found that the bathroom window was open and Chen had disappeared.
One of the nurses told WABC 7 she was “shocked” when she heard a prisoner escape through a window.”