Escaped prisoner Joseph Salser was found hiding in the empty Prime Sirloin on Lenoir-Rhyne Boulevard — three miles from where he escaped. He is now in solitary confinement at the Catawba County Detention Facility after he was discovered about 5:30 a.m. Thursday morning.

He has been charged with misdemeanor escape and breaking and entering in addition to his previous charges in Catawba County, which included felony larceny and failure to appear in court.  Salser’s bond was also upped from $30,000 to $86,500.

“The search never ended,” Maj. Coy Reid, with the Catawba County Sheriff’s Department said.  “We had unmarked vehicles looking for him.”

Police were notified about 7 p.m. that Salser had entered several businesses along U.S. 70 in an attempt to place phone calls, Reid said.  An sales person at Mike Johnson’s Hickory Toyota recognized him and contacted the police.

A K-9 unit from Hickory Police Department and another from the Catawba County Sheriff’s Department were used to track Salser from Sleep Inn to Hooters and then across Interstate 40. Hickory K-9 officer Jeff Medley saw the door of Prime Sirloin was cracked, Capt. Clyde Deal with the Hickory Police Department, said.  Two K-9 officers and their dogs searched the building and found Salser hiding in the bathroom on top of a toilet.  He was apprehended about 5 a.m. and taken to the Catawba County Detention Facility.  They questioned him until 10 a.m. before placing him in solitary confinement.

There was concern earlier that Salser had left the area after a car theft was reported by Rollin’ Motors about 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday.  A subject with a similar physical description had taken a BMW 330 ci from the lot after telling the owner, Bob Pletcher, he just wanted to look inside. According to Reid it was a case of mistaken identity.

Although Salser wasn’t the man who stole a BMW from his car lot, Pletcher did come face to face with Salser hours after the robbery at Mike Johnson’s Hickory Toyota.

Pletcher said Shawn England called him from the Toyota dealership. “He said, I think your guy is here,” Pletcher said. He wondered how England could know it was the guy when he didn’t see the man who stole the BMW, only heard about it.

Earlier that day, Pletcher and his son, Zachary, were working at the family’s dealership, Rollin’ Motors, when a man similar in appearance to Salser’s mugshot came in about 4:30 p.m.. Pletcher said he was about 5’9” and 200 pounds with dark features. The man talked about how his father used to have a BMW and how many fond memories he had of the car, Pletcher said. He said the man wasn’t interested in a test drive because it was raining, but he just wanted to look inside, so Pletcher gave him the keys. A minute later he was off.

“He played the whole story,” Pletcher said. “He knew he was going to steal the car when he walked in.”

Although he knew the chances of it being the same guy were slim, he decided to drive to Mike Johnson’s Hickory Toyota and see for himself.

When Pletcher and his wife got there about 7 p.m. they saw a man that looked suspicious, he said.

“He didn’t look like the picture,” Pletcher said. “In the picture he had a bushy mustache, but this guy had a goatee. He had on a hoodie and a toboggan.”

The toboggan set off alarm bells for Pletcher, because he said it was too warm to be wearing a warm hat.

“He looked like he was trying to look different,” Pletcher said.

He knew it wasn’t the man who robbed his store, but he didn’t think it was Salser either, so he didn’t contact the police.

“My wife was convinced it was him,” he said.

Pletcher learned later it was Salser he had seen Wednesday night after he was identified as the man who had come into Mike Johnson’s Hickory Toyota and an Isuzu dealership on U.S. 70 around 7 p.m.

“He was talking to people who worked there,” Pletcher said. “England said he used to work there.”

Salser looked nervous and antsy, Pletcher said.

“This is ironic, because in the morning…Zach was pacing and I told him ‘He’s not going to be in this area. He’s on the other side of town.’ Then we were faced with the possibility that (Salser) stole the BMW,” he said.

It was even stranger to have seen the guy later, Pletcher added.

Mike Johnson’s Hickory Toyota was one of the first place police say Salser went after leaving his hiding place at dark.  Salser told police he had been hiding in the Kenworth neighborhood from the time he escaped from his transport vehicle about 8:15 a.m. until dark.  Reid said Salser had been hiding in a utility building behind a home all day.  He told police Thursday morning that every time he stuck his head out, he saw police officers or a police vehicle.

Police have since learned that Salser used a paper clip to remove the shackles from his legs during transport.  The paper clip was taken from the courthouse in Hickory during a previous hearing and Salser held onto it.  Reid said prisoners are searched regularly, however the paper clip was never found in a search.

“This man was a mechanic,” Reid said.  “He used his knowledge of his job to do that.”

After removing the shackles, Salser removed a door panel giving him access to the door mechanism.  He pulled up on a bar in the door and it opened.  He jumped from the vehicle while it was stopped at a traffic light on N.C. 127 intersection near Second Avenue SE and ran to the nearby Kenworth neighborhood.

Reid said the transport vehicle is undergoing repairs to secure the door panel.

“We’re reviewing the way transports are done,” he said.

The escape also initiated several changes at the Catawba County Sheriff’s Department.  

“I think we did learn one lesson — the panel on the van and the color of the jail uniform,” Reid said.

On Thursday the Sheriff’s Department ordered fluorescent lime green jail uniforms for male inmates and bright pink uniforms for the women.

“That will help the average citizens spot someone when they escape,” Reid said.  “With the dark blue uniforms, it’s hard to tell if an it is a jail uniform or work clothes.”

Reid said they were due to order new uniforms anyway, however the change in color is a direct result of Salser’s escape.

“It’s going to help us a lot if anything like this happens again,” Reid said.  “If it does, we can spot them a lot easier.’

He said the new uniforms should arrive within 4-6 weeks.

The county is also making sure the door panel in the transport van is more secure for future use.

Salser’s next court appearance will be on Friday at the Catawba County Justice Center, Reid said.