The man who escaped from a Philly jail has spent years in and out of prison on drug and theft charges

Gino Hagenkotter was familiar with life in jail, having spent multiple monthslong stints behind bars over the last decade.

He was most often arrested for theft — he was caught stealing a bike, packs of cigarettes, and UPS packages on separate occasions — a habit that appeared to largely be driven by a drug addiction, records show. In the last eight years, the 34-year-old has been arrested at least five times in Philadelphia and Bucks County, and often spent months at a time behind bars.

Most recently, he was serving a six-month sentence at Philadelphia’s Riverside Correctional Facility for violating probation.

But Hagenkotter decided that Thursday would be his last day there.

While performing supervised work in an orchard behind Philadelphia’s Industrial Correctional Center, Hagenkotter escaped — the fourth Philadelphia inmate to do so this year.

He asked the guard assigned to monitor him for permission to use the restroom, police said, then he jumped the jail fence and fled through the nearby sanitation plant. By the time the guard noticed he was gone 15 minutes later, Hagenkotter had ditched his jail jumpsuit and was headed to freedom: toward Torresdale Avenue.

As of Saturday, he remained at large, and police have had no confirmed sightings of him since his initial escape Thursday afternoon, said Deputy U.S. Marshal Robert Clark. Agents, alongside Philadelphia police, were working to develop more information, Clark said.

“Best thing he can do is turn himself in,” he said.

Hagenkotter’s relatives declined to speak when reached by phone Friday. But his social media posts over recent years, as well as the details of his arrests, offer a glimpse into the life of a man who appeared to face a yearslong addiction to drugs, and who, time and time again, resorted to theft.

Hagenkotter’s Facebook posts showed a man who was not shy about his past struggles, and who often had family and friends eager to help.

“Slowly but surely cleaning up all my mess that I made when I was young and dumb,” he wrote on Facebook in May 2015. “Loving life right now.”

But, records show, just seven months later, he was arrested on retail theft charges after stealing a television from a Walmart in Bucks County. He was sentenced to three years’ probation.

“It could take you years to build something and only seconds to destroy it,” he wrote in a post the following year, in 2016.

That year, he was arrested twice: first, for receiving stolen property and possession of drug paraphernalia after Bristol Township police found multiple stolen packages, a needle, and small bags typically used to hold drugs, inside his Mercedes-Benz.

Then, a few months later, records show he stole a cart full of merchandise from a Kmart in Feasterville. He and a woman he was with were stopped by police shortly after driving away, and arrested.

These crimes resulted in his spending months in and out of jail from 2016 through 2019, but through it all, his time inside was “misconduct free,” the records show. He was often paroled early and ordered to continue drug and alcohol treatment, but on several occasions, appeared to violate the terms of his release.

Such as in 2017, when he was arrested for stealing 10 packs of Newport cigarettes, valued at $79.91. And in 2018, when he stole a bike from a Fairmount apartment building.

The man whose bike was stolen, who asked not to be identified discussing details of the case, said Hagenkotter was working for the building’s landlord as a contractor when he made copies of the keys to the units, then stole the man’s expensive road bike from a basement, the man said. Hagenkotter was charged with burglary and trespassing and sentenced to 11½ to 23 months in jail, plus two years of probation.

In 2020, Hagenkotter was released again, and began documenting parts of his sobriety journey online. He appeared to be working in a packaging facility, spent time at the gym, and was searching for stable housing.

“Greatest feeling knowing you can pass,” he wrote alongside a photo of a drug test.

In another post, he shared a photo from “Grateful Addicts in Recovery,” showing prison bunks alongside the words, “Whenever I start to feel ungrateful, I think of this.”

But in June 2023, the cycle began again: He violated his probation, and was sentenced to six months to a year in jail. Just two weeks ago, he was ordered to be transferred to Eagleville, an addiction treatment center in Montgomery County.

He was set to be released to the facility on Thursday — the day he escaped — but then law enforcement found an open retail theft case in Bucks County. The transfer was canceled and Hagenkotter was ordered to serve the rest of his time and remain incarcerated until April 2024.

That canceled transfer is what likely triggered him to escape, said Blanche Carney, commissioner of Philadelphia’s Department of Prisons.

Hagenkotter is the fourth inmate to escape from a Philadelphia jail this year. In May, Ameen Hurst, 18, and Nasir Grant, 24, broke out of PICC. They were caught within about a week.

Then, in September, a 30-year-old woman briefly escaped from the same facility. She jumped the fence and landed on the other side, but was immediately apprehended by guards.

Hagenkotter, for now, remains at large.