Police: Suspect who stole police SUV slipped cuffs twice

ST. LOUIS – A man is given no bond after allegedly stealing and totaling a police SUV in south St. Louis.

“These individuals were going on a crime spree in our community,” Mitch McCoy, director of public affairs for St. Louis Metro Police Department, said.

The crime spree started around 7 p.m. Friday evening with reports of a stolen Chevy Silverado. An hour and a half later, SLMPD got a report that that Silverado was used in a carjacking.

Police arrested 23-year-old Ruben Oseguera.

He was handcuffed behind his back and in the back seat of a police SUV when he slipped the cuffs, got in the front seat and drove off, eventually crashing at the corner of Osage Street and Illinois Avenue.

Oseguera is charged with stealing a motor vehicle and misdemeanor escape. He has been in trouble with the law before. Last year, he pleaded guilty to first degree burglary, stealing and first degree property damage.

“When you look at some of the things that he is accused of doing, the warrants that he has, this is somebody that we needed off the streets,” McCoy said.

Now, investigators are trying to figure out how he managed to get out of his handcuffs not once, but twice. After the car crash, police say they took Oseguera to the hospital, where he slipped his handcuffs again.

“Anytime you arrest someone, you make sure they don’t have a cuff key. They don’t have a paperclip. You have to do a thorough search on individuals that you arrest. So all those things we’re looking at that could be contributing factors,” SLMPD Chief Robert Tracy said.

Tracy says Oseguera was even searched a second time at the hospital, and again, there was nothing police found that could be used to manipulate the handcuffs.

“Over my course, starting over 40 years ago, there have been some individuals that can slide out of cuffs,” Chief Tracy said.

How he pulled it off and how he got into the front seat of the police SUV are still under investigation. Police have a camera inside the vehicle that should give them some answers.

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