The escaped California jail inmates kidnapped a cab driver

(Image credit: Orange County Sheriffs Department via AP)

published 1 February 2016

The three inmates who escaped from a California jail in January by rappelling off of the roof had kidnapped a cab driver, an Orange County sheriff's spokesman said in a news conference Monday, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Bac Duong, the escapee who surrendered Friday, shoved a gun into the driver's ribcage and took him hostage Jan. 22 after the three rode in the cab to Target. The next morning, Duong stole a white van the men would travel in for days. In a San Jose hotel room Jan. 27, both Duong and the cab driver ended up fleeing after the three inmates got into an argument about whether to kill the driver.

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Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.