CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A woman is describing the frightening moments when an escaped inmate jumped into her truck and took off.
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Police say the inmate, James Beasley, led them on a chase before crashing the woman’s truck.
Veronica Mason is an event planner and told Channel 2’s Tom Jones she was surprised when Beasley hopped in her truck and drove off.
“I was like I know this joker ain’t stealing my truck,” Mason said.
She admits what she did next wasn’t smart.
“But then I started running behind the truck,” Mason explained.
The man in her truck got away with her cellphone, purse and items for a baby shower event she was about to set up at the Conley Recreation Center Saturday, just after noon.
“I was frantic, but I did not know that he was an escapee,” Mason said.
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Clayton County Sheriff Levon Allen says Beasley somehow got out of his handcuffs and shackles while being treated at Southern Regional Hospital and got into civilian clothes. Allen says Beasley then boarded a MARTA bus and made his way to College Park.
That’s where Mason says she encountered him. She says she thought he worked for the recreational center.
“He was asking if we needed help taking the things off the truck,” Mason explained.
Instead, he took off," she says.
The sheriff says officers spotted Beasley near the East Point MARTA Station. He says Beasley led officers on a chase before crashing Mason’s truck.
The inmate was taken into custody.
Mason wasn’t happy when she saw her truck was totaled. She had one thought.
“How am I going home and tell this one?” she explained, meaning how was she going to tell her husband.
Now she wants answers.
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“Why was the ball dropped? We could have lost our life,” Mason said.
Beasley is back in the Clayton County jail and faces additional charges.
He was in for a probation violation.
Jones covered another case of an inmate escaping from custody while at Southern Regional Hospital last year.
The sheriff says this incident is under investigation.
Mason wants to hear from the sheriff to see what he is doing to prevent this from happening again.
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