Homeless man earns $100,000 reward for assisting in the capture of escaped inmates


A homeless man from San Francisco helped assist in the capture of two escaped fugitives and is being rewarded $100,000 as a result. Matthew Hay-Chapman spotted the Orange County inmates by recognizing their stolen white van from news reports, The New York Times reports. He pointed them out to police in the area, which led to the inmates' arrest.
"Main thing I noticed people were sleeping in it, cause the windows were all steamed up, heavy, heavy condensation. I thought to myself, there's two people in that van 'cause I used to live in a Savannah GMC van many years ago when I had a job," Hay-Chapman told the press.
Bac Duong, Hossein Nayeri, and Jonathan Tieu vanished from Central Men's Jail in Santa Ana on Jan. 22. Duong turned himself over to authorities the day before Nayeri and Tieu were caught. The owner of the stolen van will receive $20,000, and a Target store manager who caught the fugitives on video footage will receive $15,000.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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