Police Plan Wedding for Runaway Parolee

Officers helped the parolee get hitched before booking him

New Mexico police helped a parolee fleeing the country tie the knot with his fiancée at a gas station before bringing him to jail, KRQE News reported.

Caleb Rogers, 28, was scheduled to attend a parole meeting in Albuquerque Wednesday, but he fled when correction officers told him he would have to take a drug test.

Police issued an arrest warrant for Rogers, who was on probation and parole for charges including kidnapping, aggravated battery, and extortion. When officers found him at a roadside gas station the next day, he was with his girlfriend and three others en route to Mexico to get married.

When the officers heard Rogers’ story, they arranged a simple ceremony at the pump, calling a Justice of the Peace over to marry the lawless couple.

"He was standing there in handcuffs. They were all standing around and I thought, 'What's going on? This is very bizarre,' because they're just standing around talking," gas station cashier Ellen Coffman told KOAT News.

Albuquerque Police Department Officer Mark Aragon said officers took precautions to made sure the unusual wedding was safe.

"Obviously they had the compassion to go ahead and allow the ceremony, but we were also safe about it. He was under arrest and handcuffed," Aragon told the television station. "I guess you could call it a love story."

But there will be no honeymoon for this runaway groom — Rogers is currently being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center, according to a press release obtained by the Albuquerque Journal.

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