Michael Frank Simon has had numerous run-ins with police for breaking into places. But it's his breakout that people will remember most.
Simon apparently busted through a window on an upper floor of the Hennepin County jail in downtown Minneapolis before sunrise Wednesday, landed on a lower-level rooftop then ran across the top of a skyway to a parking ramp. Officers searched the ramp and surrounding areas but failed to find Simon, who was wearing an orange jail jumpsuit and blue jacket.
Simon, 57, of Hopkins, made his way to the St. Paul suburb of Little Canada, where he was arrested by federal authorities three hours later.
The details of how Simon pulled off his brief escape and then made it all the way to Little Canada, some 12 miles away, were still a mystery late Wednesday, with Hennepin County Sheriff's officials declining to comment or reveal how they managed to nab Simon.
But a broken window on one of the jail's upper floors was boarded up soon after Simon got away, and a source close to the case said that he had fled through that opening.
A repairman replaced the window by early afternoon.
Simon's escape was the first at the Hennepin County Public Safety Facility, across the street from City Hall and kitty-corner from the Government Center, since the building opened in 2001, said Jon Collins, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office.
Simon's criminal history spans nearly all his adult life and includes at least 15 convictions for burglaries committed around the Twin Cities area. He was booked into the jail on Sept. 25 on suspicion of financial transaction card fraud, according to the Sheriff's Office.