An accused thief with dozens of prior arrests escaped from custody by strolling out of a Manhattan hospital early Monday – but was caught 12 hours later when he showed up at a police precinct, The Post has learned.
Darryl Stevens, 36, went to the Midtown North Precinct at around 12:30 p.m., asking to pick up some of his personal belongings that were still there following his petit larceny arrest Saturday, according to police sources.
Stevens – who has 54 prior arrests, 21 of which are sealed – was promptly re-arrested, cops and the sources said.
The accused thief was initially taken to the hospital around 3:15 p.m. Saturday – but he simply walked out at around 12:40 a.m. on Monday, heading west on West 59th Street toward Ninth Avenue, according to police and sources.
It wasn’t immediately clear how he was able to duck out unnoticed.
The escape comes exactly two months after Yenchun Chen, 44 – who was in custody on drug charges – allegedly slipped out of a fifth-floor window at Mount Sinai Beth Israel and then took off in a cab.
Authorities and sources had initially described a Spider Man-like feat — saying Chen used tied-together bedsheets to rappel part of the way down the side of the building, then climbed down a ladder to the street.
But sources later said he fell and seriously hurt himself while attempting to use the makeshift rope.
Chen was captured on Sept. 12 in Queens – still so badly bruised from his daring escape that he begged US Marshals to be taken back to a doctor, authorities and sources said. He was re-arrested and slapped with escape charges.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Stevens would face additional charges, on top of the petit larceny rap he was initially busted on.
Records show he was last arrested Sept. 21 on criminal mischief, petit larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and harassment charges.
He has been arrested once in the past for an assault on a police officer, and six times on gun-related charges, police sources said.
On five separate occasions, he was charged with resisting arrest, the sources said.
He also has a six-time history as an “emotionally disturbed person,” according to the sources.