EXCLUSIVE: Atascadero woman arrested; escapes from and then hides handcuffs in 'unusual' place

Posted: Aug 31, 2010 3:40 PM by Bethany Tucker
Updated: Sep 1, 2010 10:11 AM

Atascadero woman hides handcuffs in body cavity

A local woman is accused of driving drunk and endangering the life of her child. But, it's what happened after her arrest that makes this story truly unusual.

Atascadero police say the woman was able to slip out of her handcuffs last Thursday night, and managed to hide them so well that not even the guard who first performed an extensive pat-down found them right away.

Atascadero police officers say the 51-year-old woman, whom they've asked us not to name, was driving drunk when she crashed into the garage of her home. She's charged with DUI, along with willful cruelty to a child. "In the garage was her 11-year-old son," said Commander Steve Gesell of the Atascadero Police Department. "He was in close enough proximity to the vehicle to precipitate the charge of child endangerment."

It was that woman's son who, officers say, called 911 to report that crash. But it was what happened after her arrest that made this night a bit different for officers.

"They looked over and she was knocking on the window," said Gesell. Investigators say she got out of the handcuffs. "They pulled her out of the car and another struggle ensued, they were able to get a second pair of handcuffs on her," said Gesell.

But what about the first pair of handcuffs? Officers say they didn't see that first set before they took the suspect to jail. There wasn't a female officer on duty that night, so they decided to take her straight to County Jail. "The arresting officer returned to Atascadero PD, where an extremely thorough search of the rear of his vehicle was conducted to include removing the plastic molding prisoner seat to the rear," said Gesell.

But they weren't there.

Officers made a second call to the County Jail. Deputies there were asked to search the woman again. "At that time, it's my understanding that the Sheriff's Correctional Deputies went to her cell and asked her for the handcuffs," said Gesell. "They physically observed her removing them from a body cavity."

Why did she hide them? Officers are stumped.

"There's just behavior that really is not rooted in logic," Gesell explains. "We don't know why, frankly, she chose to conceal the handcuffs the way she did." Gesell tells KSBY News he's never had a case like this in his 21-year career in law enforcement. "The only thing they'd be able to used for at that point in time, is certainly some type of weapon to swing around," said Gesell.

Officers say, when the handcuffs were recovered, they were still double-locked from the time the woman was still placed under arrest. Investigators say it's not all that uncommon for suspects to escape from their handcuffs. "It's a fine balance between getting the handcuffs tight enough to secure them without cutting off their circulation, and obviously in this case, they were too loose," said Gesell. "The typical scenario is they'll get out of one, and the other one will be dangling. This was an anomaly that she had made her way out of both of them."

Officers say because the woman took the handcuffs, she now faces charges of petty theft.

The woman's lawyer says he can not yet comment on the case.