You can run, but you can’t hide.
But for one fugitive, it turns out he couldn’t RIDE.
Police in West Des Moines, Iowa nabbed a fugitive who had managed to evade authorities from the state of Wisconsin for 30 years.
According to local TV station KCCI 8, police stopped George Hartleroad, the suspected fugitive, when they noticed that his bicycle had no rear reflector on it.
The KCCI report stated that Hartleroad initially gave them a false name but eventually divulged his real name. Police say they ran his name through their database and found that he had been wanted by the state of Wisconsin since 1994. Hartleroad was found to be a convicted rapist in a 1983 case. The Wisconsin Department of Corrections say that Hartleroad served five years of his prison sentence before escaping and has been on the run ever since.
Until the shoddy bike reflector did him in!
Wisconsin fugitive wanted for 30 years arrested in West Des Moines | Click on the image to read the full story https://t.co/CbNGXWLTUC
— KCCI News (@KCCINews) July 3, 2024
According to KCCI 8, the 71-year-old Hartleroad managed to evade police by living as a homeless man during his time on the run Authorities placed the suspected fugitive in a jail in Polk County awaiting extradition to Wisconsin. Hartleroad is 71-years-old.
Hartleroad isn’t the only fugitive who was able to sneak past authorities for decades. A Daily Caller report noted that a fugitive from China was recently arrested back in May after evading authorities for 20 years for allegedly killing his neighbor. According to the story, the man’s strategy to escape attention was to pretend to be a deaf and mute scavenger and to not make contact with his wife and son. The fugitive only communicated through smiles and gestures.