Police have tracked down a 44-year-old man who made a death-defying escape while in custody last month while he was being treated at a Manhattan hospital.
Yenchun Chen, who lived in a luxury apartment building on the Long Island City waterfront, was nabbed by cops at around 8 a.m. Tuesday and taken to the 13th Precinct in Manhattan, police said.
Chen had been on the lam since Aug. 9, after making a daring escape from the fifth floor of Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital — located at 281 1st Ave. in Gramercy—while in Department of Correction custody.
The escape, which took place at around 4:30 p.m., resembled a scene from a movie.
Chen allegedly made a rope using knotted bedsheets, clothing and other materials to climb out of the window. He then descended down the makeshift rope to the second floor, where he landed on an air conditioning unit.
From there, Chen, who weighs about 250 pounds, used a nearby ladder to get himself to the street level — where he hailed a yellow cab and headed downtown.
All told, police said, the entire escape took about six minutes.
According to law enforcement sources, Chen had been in hospital for several days prior to the escape, although the reasons for his admission were not disclosed. He had been arrested in July on drug charges. He was also arrested Tuesday for escaping custody.
Read more: New Yorkers Launch GoFundMe for Morocco Quake Victims
