Oakdale escapee quickly caught

OAKDALE -- A parolee arrested on suspicion of burglary slipped one of his handcuffs and escaped outside the Oakdale Police Department before being corralled again in a yard a block away, police said.

At 7:22 a.m. Wednesday, Police Chief Lester Jenkins and another officer responded to a report of a man going through trash bins near H and Fourth streets, Sgt. Joe Johnson said.

They took Joshua Wayne Wiggins, a 23-year-old transient, into custody and took him to the police station at 245 Second St. downtown.

But before the officer could take Wiggins from the patrol car into the station, the man escaped from the cuffs and bolted into the neighborhood.

While officers went door to door on First and Second streets, a resident of a home in the 300 block of Second called to report a man in her back yard.

When officers arrived, the suspect fence-hopped yards until they caught him a few houses away.

This time, the cuffs did their duty, and the officers got Wiggins into the holding cell for transport to the Stanislaus County Jail.