A man escaped from Philly jail grounds Thursday afternoon — the fourth person to break out of a city jail this year

A 34-year-old man who was serving a jail sentence for drug and theft charges escaped from the grounds of Philadelphia’s Industrial Correctional Center on Thursday afternoon, according to city officials — becoming the fourth person to break out of a city jail this year.

Gino Hagenkotter, an inmate at the nearby Riverside Correctional Facility in the Northeast, was performing supervised work in the orchard behind PICC when, shortly before 11:45 a.m., he asked his assigned guard for permission to use the restroom, said Blanche Carney, commissioner of Philadelphia’s Department of Prisons.

About 15 minutes later, the guard, suspicious of how long the inmate had been gone, went to check the restroom and found that Hagenkotter was not there, Carney said. The guard immediately notified prison officials, she said, and PICC, as well as nearby facilities, were placed on lockdown.

But by that point, Hagenkotter had already climbed over the jail’s fence. He then walked through the yard of the nearby sanitation facility, ditched his jumpsuit, and headed down the street toward Torresdale Avenue wearing a white shirt and blue pants, said Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore.

Vanore said Hagenkotter had no history of violence, but asked anyone with information on his whereabouts to call the police. Various law enforcement agencies, using helicopters and dogs, were searching for him as night fell Thursday.

Court records show Hagenkotter has a lengthy criminal history of mostly drug and theft offenses in both Philadelphia and Bucks County.

He was convicted of burglary in 2019 after stealing a bike, and was sentenced to 11½ to 23 months in jail, plus two years’ probation, according to court records. Then, in June, after violating his probation, he was sentenced again to six months to a year in prison. Two weeks ago, he was granted parole and ordered to be transferred to Eagleville, an addiction treatment center in Montgomery County.

He was set to be released to that facility on Thursday, Carney said, but officials found that he had an open retail theft case in Bucks County. So his transfer was canceled, and he was to continue serving time at the Riverside facility until April, Carney said.

Carney said officials believe the cancellation of his transfer “played a part in his decision to escape.”

Hagenkotter is the fourth person to escape from a Philadelphia jail this year. And his escape came on the same day that a 44-year-old man inside the city’s Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility was fatally assaulted by his cellmate.

Yet Carney said the escape and the fatal beating did not point to “a bigger issue” inside the city’s jails. Although staffing levels remain a challenge for the department, she said, that was not a factor in Hagenkotter’s escape: He was being monitored one-on-one.

“We have correctional officers in place, monitoring individuals, being vigilant, being observant, allowing them to use facilities, and this person took ample opportunity,” she said.

Still, it’s the latest stain on the city agency this year. In May, Ameen Hurst, 18, and Nasir Grant, 24, broke out of PICC — an unprecedented episode caused by a series of institutional failures. First, they manipulated their cell doors open, casually walked down the hallway, then crawled toward a door as another prisoner, also out of his cell, acted as a lookout.

They then crawled through a hole in a chain-link fence that had been cut seven weeks earlier. Their disappearance was not noticed by correctional officers for nearly 19 hours, partially because one guard fell asleep on her shift.

Hurst, who was accused of killing four people, and Grant, who was in custody for drug and gun offenses, were both caught within about a week. Four people have since been charged with helping Hurst and Grant
once they got out.

Then, in September, a 30-year-old woman briefly escaped from PICC by slipping out an unsecured door. The woman, Angie Molinuevo, then climbed two razor-wire-lined fences, before landing on rocks along the Delaware River banks, where prison staff captured her.

In Hagenkotter’s case, because he had no violent offenses, he was qualified to work outside “with some more freedom,” said Vanore. He said Hagenkotter evaded the Police Department’s search perimeter before it was even set up.

Hagenkotter’s burglary arrest stemmed from a bike theft at an apartment building in Fairmount in 2018, according to court records and the man whose bike he stole. The man, now 30, asked not to be identified to discuss details of the case. He said in an interview that Hagenkotter had been working as a contractor for the building’s landlord and copied the keys to its units.

The man said that he stored his expensive road bike in the basement, and that Hagenkotter went in and stole it.

A few days later, the man said, Hagenkotter returned to the building and the man and his roommates confronted him. He then called the police, and officers took his statement and arrested Hagenkotter on burglary and trespassing charges. The detective later found the bike listed for sale at a South Street pawnshop, the man said, and the shop’s owner gave it back to him and apologized.

A relative of Hagenkotter’s declined to comment when reached by phone Thursday afternoon.