Ho-Hum, Another Lockdown

The Examiner reported that four Howard County schools were briefly placed on lockdown Thursday when a state prison inmate escaped from a work crew on an Ellicott City highway.

Nicholas Wachter, 47, apparently walked away from a prison crew while picking up trash on Route 29 near Route 40 about 9 a.m. He allegedly hopped in a cab and went home to Bel Air. It wasn't really clear from the account how he was able to do that without his guards noticing.

Police called out the dogs and a helicopter to search for Wachter, who is serving six years for burglary and forgery at Brockbridge Correctional Facility in Jessup. Witnesses reported seeing the inmate get into a cab, and the company told investigators where Wachter had been taken and he was apprehended without incident.

Mount Hebron High School, Patapsco Middle School, and St. John’s Lane and Hollifield Station Elementary schools were locked down from about 9:35 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Let's pick up the Examiner's account:

Mount Hebron senior Sean McCarthy was in the middle of calculus class when the lockdown began, but he said no one panicked. McCarthy said the principal announced someone who had escaped from a correctional facility was seen near the school.

“We just had a lockdown like three weeks ago because the police brought the dogs in to search for drugs, so we knew it was serious right away,” McCarthy said.

“It really didn’t affect us since it wasn’t like we had to get on the ground and get away from the doors and windows. We just kept learning, and when the class was over, we went to the next class.”