The prisoner who claimed to police she was pregnant, then escaped their custody in a hospital gown, has been captured, the NYPD says.
Tiffany Neumann, 23, was taken back into custody on the Upper West Side Tuesday morning, about two days after she slipped out of her handcuffs and ran away from police at NewYork-Presbyterian's hospital in Lower Manhattan.
Law enforcement sources said she then went to a bar near the South Street Seaport and stole a credit card, which she used to purchase cigarettes, tobacco and headphones at a newsstand.
As she was led out of the police station by cops after her arrest Tuesday night, Neumann told reporters she fled the hospital because, she claimed, she was "brutally beaten by the cops."
"I broke out of the handcuffs when I was out of the hospital after they almost killed me," she said.
She said she didn't steal the credit card and that the card owner "left it in the bar for me and I used it."
Neumann said she bought cigarettes and food "because I'm pregnant," adding that she had a beer Monday night.
Police have said she is not pregnant but declined to comment on Neumann's claims of being assaulted by police. She did not appear to be injured as she was led from the station.
Neumann was initially arrested Saturday on the Upper West Side on charges of petit larceny, theft of services and criminal possession of stolen property.
Police say she gave them a fake name and told them she was pregnant. Officers took her to the hospital, where she was able to get her hands out of the cuffs on Sunday night.
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The circumstances regarding the initial charges against Neumann were unknown. She has six prior arrests, three in New York and three in Los Angeles. She had been supposed to return to LA this week.
Neumann is now facing additional charges of grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property charges, and escape from custody. She said she did not have an attorney.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said the officer who had Neumann in custody at the time she escaped was suspended.
"I will not tolerate as police commissioner these continued lapses in basic policing," Bratton said. "Once we have a person in our custody, the responsibility is the care and custody of the prisoner. The penalties being imposed if we find an officer derelict in duties are going to be very significant."
Neumann's escape was the latest in a series in Manhattan, which included an attempted murder suspect on the loose for nearly a month before he was located in the same Harlem neighborhood where he had escaped and a barefoot man who eluded police for three days before he was taken back into custody.
