FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. — Florida deputies took an escaped inmate back into custody after a seven-hour search Saturday when he escaped the hospital where he was being treated and hid in the woods.
Anthony Romine, 29, faked an injury in jail when he was booked for petit theft, violation of pre-trial release and two counts of counterfeiting on July 3, the agency said. Flagler County Sheriff's deputies said he fell on purpose in hopes that he could escape and return to Ohio, where he is originally from, according to a post.
During the search, deputies received multiple calls of possible sightings that were investigated by deputies with the help of their K-9 unit, drone unit, two helicopters and bloodhounds from Tomoka Correctional Institution.
A gas station clerk notified law enforcement that Romine came into the store and asked to use the phone. When deputies searched the area, he was found hiding under foliage and underbrush in the woods by a gas station in Palm Coast. A K-9 found him, bit him and pulled him from under his hiding spot, according to body camera footage.
Romine is heard screaming and trying to push away the dog when K-9 Neo took a "bite out of crime."
"We worked until we got him. I commend our team for staying on his trail, and the community for 'seeing something, saying something' until this dirtbag was captured," Sheriff Rick Staly said in a post. "Fortunately, no one was hurt except this dirtbag who was crying after he was caught by our K-9."
He also said the sheriff's office will be investigating how the deputy assigned to watch him was distracted resulting in his escape.
Romine was arrested and booked into jail for his escape, battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting without violence.
