By Jim Smith

Butler Eagle Staff Writer

He’s not exactly Houdini, but a handcuffed man managed to elude capture for about two hours after escaping from a constable in Butler Township this morning.

When police finally tracked down 27-year-old Bradley S. Cramer shortly before noon, they found him hiding in the bathroom of his grandmother’s house on Center Avenue in Butler.

“He was probably there most of the time we were looking for him,” said state Constable Bob Geagan.

Butler Township police plan to charge Cramer for the not-so-well-thought-out breakout.

Geagan earlier in the day had picked up the suspect who was wanted on warrants for failing to pay his fines in two summary cases — one for disorderly conduct and the other for criminal mischief, both in Butler Township, authorities said.

The constable took Cramer n to District Judge Kevin O’Donnell’s office in connection with the warrants. But when Geagan stepped away momentarily to talk to a court official, the defendant made his break shortly after 10 a.m.

Despite his hands cuffed behind his back, he bolted from a chair and burst out one door leading to hallway. From there he shouldered his way out two more doors and was last seen running straight toward the 911 center.

But he soon disappeared, ala Houdini, or so it seemed.

Butler Township police sent officers in three cars to begin hunting for the missing man. City police sent in additional officers. Butler’s four-legged K-9 officer was called in; so, too, were sheriff’s deputies.

The search would take a while.

“We looked all around Sunnyview and then pretty much all over (Butler’s)south side,” Geagan said.

Officers reached out to known relatives, including a cousin and sister, in hopes of tracking down Cramer. None of those kin folk had seen him.

One cousin, however, suggested checking with the suspect’s grandmother, who lives not far away on Center Avenue. Authorities apparently did not know of the grandmother.

The search eventually led there — and ultimately ended there, some 500 yards from the DJ office, shortly before noon.

The elderly woman, believed to be in her 80s, claimed her grandson was not there; however, she admitted the back door was open and he could have slipped inside without her hearing.

“We found him hiding in the bathroom,” Geagan said. “He was still cuffed.”

But something was different.

“He had slipped the cuffs to the front,” said Butler Township police Lt. Matthew Pearson.

The obvious first question searchers had for him — why ? — would remain unanswered.

“He wouldn’t talk,” Geagan said.

Police later took him to Butler Memorial Hospital after Cramer began complaining about pain in his side, around the rib cage.

“He claimed he was injured when he fell (during his getaway),” Pearson said. Officers, however, saw no visible injuries.

Not long after the capture, police typed up charges: escapee and theft, both misdemeanors.

The additional charge of theft, police noted, was for an item Cramer took from Geagan.

“The handcuffs,” Pearson said.