SPOTSYLVANIA, Va. — A thirty-two-year-old escaped inmate from the Virginia Department of Corrections was captured Wednesday afternoon, officials said.
Benjamin Wash, 32, was on a work detail in a food kitchen near the Shannon Airport in Spotsylvania Couny around 3:30 p.m., authorities said. Wash was caught drinking a stolen bottle of hand sanitizer. He ran out of the work detail through the back door when supervisors confronted him.
The escaped inmate then ran across an active runway at the Shannon Airport and into a business parking lot across the street, authorities said.
He stole a parked vehicle from the lot and drove off with a high rate of speed. Wash crossed into Caroline County and then went east on Route 2. After a short pursuit, Wash stopped the vehicle and turned himself in to the Caroline County Deputies, according to authorities.
The inmate was taken before a magistrate in Caroline County and has been placed in the Pamunkey Regional Jail.
He is being charged with the felony of larceny of the sanitizer, grand larceny of a motor vehicle, and a felony escape in Spotsylvania County. Caroline County is charging him with felony eluding reckless driving and DUI.
Wash is serving a sentence in the Department of Corrections Camp 21 facility.
Reprinted with permission of WUSA 9