A  Tensas Parish Detention Center inmate has stolen a police car and escaped from the facility.

Tenses 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 is driving 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 be headed that way.

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