WATERPROOF — A Tensas Parish Detention Center inmate stole a police car Thursday night and escaped from the facility.

Tensas Parish Sheriff Rickey Jones said Benjamin Gottke, 43, left the facility’s kitchen where he was working about 9 p.m. and stole a back-up patrol car.

“He evidently had a key to the yard (to get outside of the facility),” Jones said.

Jones said Gottke stole a white unmarked Ford Crown Victoria with a public license plate.

Gottke, Jones said, is a white male, who is 5-foot-11 and weighs 213 pounds.

Jones said Gottke has an ID from Houma, La., and a driver’s license from Scott, La., and could have been headed that way.

Jones said he was not sure for what Gottke’s was serving time. Jones said Gottke had only about nine months left on his sentence and was soon going to be eligible for work release.

As of press time, Gottke was still at large.

Anyone with information should call the Tensas Parish Sheriff’s Office at 318-766-3961.