Story Created:
Jul 1, 2008 at 9:45 AM CST
Story Updated:
Jul 1, 2008 at 9:45 AM CST
HOUSTON (AP) - Authorities say they have an escaped inmate back behind bars after two bank robberies and a kidnapping in Fayetteville.
Patrick Bigelow was arrested yesterday after a manhunt that led law enforcement authorities from the Fayette County Jail, and other stops including College Station, before he was arrested in a Houston hotel room.
The Bryan-College Station Eagle reported an FBI spokeswoman said yesterday's bank crimes bring the total robberies in which Bigelow is a suspect to eight since mid- 2007.
Authorities said Bigelow kidnapped a Fayetteville man early yesterday morning, held him at gunpoint and then drove the mans car to Hempstead, about 50 miles from College Station, where Bigelow left him unharmed.
Bigelow, who had been jailed for the past month on $300,000 bail, is accused of conducting many of the bank robberies while wearing a fake beard as a disguise, leading authorities to give him the moniker 'the Santa Claus Robber.'
Investigators said they still were looking into how the 44-year-old covered so much ground yesterday.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
AP-NY-07-01-08 0508EDT
