Escaped inmate found in portable toilet

An inmate who escaped Friday from a van transporting him from South suburban courthouse to a prison in northern Illinois was recaptured about six hours later.

Authorities say Cesar Sanchez kicked open a door and leapt from the moving vehicle in Lockport. Cook County sheriff’s spokesman Frank Bilecki said the 37-year-old was found hiding in a portable potty in a storage yard in Rockdale.

Bilecki said a Cook County sheriff’s dog named Melanie tracked Sanchez to the waste yard area. An initial search failed to turn up Sanchez, even though a second dog detected his scent.

A heat bloom detected by a tracking device in a helicopter overhead prompted another search that turned up Sanchez in the portable potty, according to Bilecki.

Illinois Department of Corrections spokeswoman Sharyn Elman said Sanchez escaped as he was being taken from the Bridgeview courthouse to Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill.

Elman said Sanchez was wearing a yellow jumpsuit and handcuffs when he escaped. She said two prison guards were in the van when Sanchez leapt from the vehicle.

Sanchez was able to get into the back of delivery truck after escaping, said Will County Sheriff Deputy Chief Ken Kaupas. The truck was tracked to a business near Rockdale.

Prison records show Sanchez is serving a seven-year sentence that began in 2006 for burglaries in Cook and Kane counties. The records also indicate Sanchez was previously convicted of burglary, shoplifting, robbery, aggravated battery, motor vehicle theft and unlawful use of a credit card.

Bilecki said the search for Sanchez would not have ended so quickly without the joint efforts of Illinois State Police, the Department of Corrections, Cook and Will county sheriff’s deputies and local police.