Hospital fugitive back in custody

The Hualien County Police Department yesterday announced that its fugitive, who escaped from a hospital on Oct. 2, was again in custody.

According to the police, the 42-year-old fugitive Wu Yung-dao (吳永道) was arrested again at an abandoned warehouse in Taichung yesterday, which put his 24-day runaway to an end.

"With help of our secret informant, we knew that Wu had been staying in the Taichung area ever since he escaped. We finally located him three days ago and decided to strike yesterday," said Chen Kwan-yu (陳寬裕), the chief of the Criminal Investigation Corp of the Hualien County Police Department. "We finally arrested him around 1:50am yesterday."

The police said that they did not discover any weapons at the scene when they arrested Wu.

Prior to yesterday's arrest, the police have arrested Fan Tsung-hui (范璁慧) and Yu Chin-wei (游金偉) on Oct. 3; Sun Pei-yuan (孫培原) on Oct. 8; Lee Liang-hung (李良宏) on Oct. 16. The police said that these four suspects allegedly helped Wu escape from the hospital.

Wu was sentenced to 17 years in 1992 for drug dealing and was paroled in May last year. His parole was rescinded by the Hualien District Court on Sept. 26 this year in response to charges brought by prosecutors that Wu was again engaged in drug dealing.

He was then arrested on Sept. 29 after flying from Taichung to Hualien because the police had discovered that he was a wanted man after he checked in with his photo ID card.

On Oct. 1, Wu complained of stomach pains and the Hualien Detention House decided to send him to the hospital. Doctors determined that Wu had appendicitis and recommended an immediate appendectomy.

Wu successfully escaped from the Hualien Hospital around 4:40am, only hours after his appendix had been removed. Two men carried him from his bed which was recorded by the hospital's security video system.