Jailbird Heads to Hooters

A convict who managed to extract himself from the county jail in an Indiana town Sunday while taking out the trash was caught yesterday after he was unable to resist bragging about the caper to new-found friends at a nearby Hooters. Charles Smith, the 56-year-old escapee, wasn't even missed until a local citizen spotted him, garbed in his orange jail shirt and tan pants, outside a grocery store.

That’s when jail officials were notified that they might be missing an inmate, but they lost his trail until he spilled his story within earshot of the Hooters staff several days later. Smith, who was jailed for public intoxication, is now also charged with felony escape and back behind bars on a $20,000 bond (More Hooters stories.)