Brickbats

The Fugitive

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Almost 40 years ago, Denver police arrested a man for burglary and booked him under the name on the driver's license in a wallet he had on him, Gary Stewart Heggs. That man was eventually sentenced to prison under that name, but the wallet and the ID had been stolen from the real Heggs. Two years later, the phony Heggs escaped from prison. Since then, the real Heggs, who lives in Missouri, reports he has had to repeatedly prove to law enforcement he isn't a fugitive from justice. Heggs has tried several times to get the Colorado Department of Corrections to remove his name from law enforcement databases, but they say that once a prisoner's name has been entered into the system they can't change it.