A Mercer County Jail inmate who walked away from an Erie, Pennsylvania hospital did the same thing at a Farrell Hospital a day earlier, according to police.

Thirty-year-old Alex Rabold of Hermitage surrendered at the Mercer County Jail last Monday after spending the previous three days as a fugitive.

A judge had granted Rabold emergency medical leave to receive treatment at UPMC Hamot.

According to police, on Friday, December 8 Rabold stole a nurse's purse, which contained keys that Rabold allegedly used to steal her car which was found abandoned the following day in Farrell.

Rabold was back in the Mercer County jail after turning himself in late the next day.

The escape attempt in Erie was preceded by an even earlier flight for freedom in Farrell.

Police say Rabold fled from UPMC Horizon’s Emergency Room on Thursday, December 7, one day before the Erie hospital escape.

A Farrell police officer captured Rabold, still wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, after a foot chase. Police say Rabold had been trying to break into a pickup truck just before they spotted him.

Rabold, who had been serving a sentence for misdemeanors, is now jailed on a $100,000 bond. He faced a Monday afternoon court hearing on a charge of escape.