Handcuffed suspect slips away from San Jose police, steals patrol car

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A suspect who was being arrested in connection with stealing a truck early Tuesday morning slipped out of his handcuffs and drove away in a San Jose police patrol car.

Sgt. Enrique Garcia said police were still looking for Andrew Trujillo, 40, who was last seen wearing an Orange Campbell Towing shirt with reflective stripes.

"It appears the suspect was able to slip his handcuffs to the front of his body," Garcia said, "get into the front of the police car and drive away. It doesn't appear at this time officers did anything wrong."

Before 9 a.m., police were scouring an RV lot in Hayward with their K9 unit, shouting for anyone hiding to "come out." The patrol car, with weapons intact, was found a bit after Trujijllo's escape in the 23000 block of Clawiter Road. 

Lori Murdock, who works nearby at Target Glass, in Hayward, said her delivery worker was getting ready to start his day at 7 a.m. when he saw someone drive the police car drive into the lot and then run away.

Enrique said the ordeal was reported just before 5:30 a.m. when officers were dispatched to a suspicious vehicle in the 100 block of Hoger Way in San Jose, where a reporting party stated a GPS in a stolen semi-truck showed the truck was just sitting there.

Officers found Trujilllo sitting in the truck’s cab and placed him in handcuffs and put him in the back caged area of the patrol car.

He slipped out during their investigation. How he did that exactly has not been explained.   Garcia said that the department needs to look at all the other police cars to see if someone else could easily escape.

Anyone with information is asked to call  911. Those wishing to remain anonymous may call Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867.