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After telling a doctor at Eden’s Morehead Hospital his troubles Wednesday, Tony Lee Anderson of Reidsville made his own evaluation. The Rockingham County inmate who was taken to the hospital for an existing medical condition decided he needed a change of venue — from the jail cell awaiting him.

“He just made a run for it,” said Sharon Tongbua, assistant director of marketing and public relations at the hospital.

Anderson, 40, had done just that at 11:21 a.m., after asking the guard if he could use the bathroom. After finishing with the doctor, the guard removed Anderson’s restraints so he could escort him there, according to a Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office report.

The inmate assaulted the guard and ran from the hospital in his green jumpsuit. Anderson was already facing more than two dozen charges ranging from robbery to felony larceny of a motor vehicle.

An all-points bulletin drew area law enforcement agencies, including 15 officers and administrative staff from the nearby Eden Police Department, who swarmed the area.

Eden Police Chief Reece Pyrtle left his office for the nearby Meadowgreens Golf Course and Country Club, a short distance from the hospital.

“If he made it up there it would be an easy spot to locate him because they had done a lot of clearing up there for a new development,” said Pyrtle, who borrowed the keys to a golf cart and rode the greens looking for Anderson.

Within a few minutes he spotted a man in the distance, walking on the 11th fairway.

“One time he stopped like he was swinging a golf club,” Pyrtle said. Possibly to throw off anyone looking for him.

Pyrtle figures Anderson didn’t run as he got closer because he was in his street clothes rather than a uniform. When he was just a few yards away, Pyrtle got out of the golf cart and ordered the man to the ground. He was captured without incident.

“He said, 'I’m not going anywhere,’” Pyrtle said. Anderson’s freedom lasted 17 minutes. Charges are pending for escape and assault.

The guard was not injured.

“I was in the right place at the right time,” Pyrtle said of the credit given him by the sheriff’s department for capturing Anderson.

Contact Nancy McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nancy.mclaughlin@news-record.com