HdG Man Accidentally Released from Harford County Detention Center

A Havre de Grace man serving time in the Harford County Detention Center received a Valentine's Day surprise that is now reportedly under investigation.

Rodney Eugene Wanzer, 48, was accidentally released from the detention center in Bel Air on Feb. 14, according to The Aegis, which reported sheriff's deputies from the warrant-fugitive unit arrested him Feb. 19 in the 800 block of Ohio Street in Havre de Grace. Wanzer was reportedly serving time for violating probation.

Wanzer had appealed the probation violation on Feb. 12, according to online court records, which stated the charge involved a theft scheme between $1,000 and $10,000.

The Harford County Sheriff's Office told The Aegis that the agency was investigating the accidental release.

In recent months, there have been several cases of mistakenly released prisoners nationwide. 

At the end of January, a man convicted of heroin trafficking in North Carolina was released because of a clerical error, according to the Winston-Salem Journal, which reported the clerk of the court said there had been 300 cases on the docket the day that his paperwork was wrongly categorized, stating: "That's not an excuse for what happened, but there can be human error dealing with the amount of paperwork we’re dealing with.” That man remains at large.

In December, an inmate at the Maryland Correctional Institute for Women in Jessup serving time for burglary was mistakenly released due to a clerical error, according to the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, which said she was located before Christmas.

In October, two convicted murderers serving life sentences in Florida forged a judge's signature to sign their release papers, CNN reported. The judge told CNN: "People, particularly people with criminal minds, come up with ingenious ways to beat the system. They have nothing but time on their hands to think of things." The men were found in a motel within weeks of their disappearance, according to CNN.