Inmate On Garbage Duty Escapes From San Francisco Jail

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) -- Authorities in San Francisco are searching for a jail inmate who escaped while a sheriff's deputy escorted him on an early-morning trash run.

Chief Deputy Kathy Gorwood says 40-year-old Timothy Midgett ducked through a door at the city's Hall of Justice at around 5 a.m. on Saturday as he was taking a load of garbage to the building's basement.

Gorwood says the deputy tried to chase Midgett down on the street, but lost him.

Midgett had been jailed since July and was due to be released in six-and-a-half more weeks. But Gorwood says there is an outstanding warrant for his arrest on drug charges in Houston.

Details about why he was held in San Francisco were not immediately provided by the sheriff's department.