A desperate prisoner was determined to spend the day with his girlfriend on Valentines Day this year. On Friday afternoon, Arizona suspect Joseph Andrew Dekenipp went missing from a detention center in Florence, after inmates were allowed out into a fenced area. When they returned, Dekenipp was nowhere to be found. He had crawled past razor wire and scaled two large fences before escaping.

He was heading to a nearby bar about 10 miles away in Coolidge to meet his girlfriend to spend Valentines Day with her. Pinal deputies used K-9s to tract Dekenipp’s scent but the trail soon disappeared. The next attempt to track him was to pull over cars on nearby roads to search for the missing prisoner. This also was not successful until two teens told authorities that they had given Dekenipp a ride to the nearby bar. The cops used this lead and found Dekenipp and he was in custody again. In less than 3 hours, Dekenipp was back in Pinal County Adult Detention Center.

He was originally charged with many charges such as suspected car theft and driving on a suspended license. His bail was set at $5,000 and a hearing was set for February 25^th. Now, he will be charged with an escape charge and most likely will be away from his love for much longer.