SANFORD, Fla. -- A man accused of putting an elderly woman in a chokehold and stealing her car has been caught after escaping from the sheriff's office.

David Wayne Carver, 37, walked out of the Seminole County Sheriff's Office, at 100 Bush Blvd., Tuesday after he was taken into custody following an incident at the Sam's Club in Fern Park.

A sheriff's spokeswoman said a police dog helped find Carver crouching in a pool of water behind a house in a Seminole County subdivision around 3:30 p.m. Carver was found about four miles from the sheriff's office.

The Seminole County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday released surveillance video from the facility, showing Carver walking out of an interrogation room, down some steps and out the front door, deputies said.

All but one of the doors in the upstairs hallway are locked, a fact that Carver may have learned during previous visits to the sheriff's office.

"He actually has been through that door several times, so he does know our facility well," Seminole County sheriff's Lt. James Clark said.

The video shows detectives, who did not initially realize that he was gone, frantically looking for Carver.

"It's common knowledge you do not leave someone unguarded. That's common knowledge. This deputy knew better. He made a mistake," Clark said.

It took more than a minute for deputies to realize that Carver had escaped.

"It's somewhat of a fluke. It's also a lack of regard on our part. We turned our back on him, and he was able to make his way out. He came out of the front doors here,"

Clark said the incident will be investigated.

"We're going to take a long hard look at this, and this investigator, he's going to have a lot of answering to do," Clark said.

A witness called deputies on Wednesday and reported seeing a person who looked like Carver. A deputy went to the area and saw a man run into the woods.

Three Winter Springs elementary schools, Highlands, Layer and Winter Springs, were placed in lockdown during the search.

According to deputies, Carver attacked the 85-year-old woman at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and drove off in her white minivan. Witnesses helped deputies locate Carver, who was stopped by Sanford police at about 8:30 p.m. near Shirley Avenue and 2nd Street.

Carver resisted arrest and was shocked with a Taser gun before being taken to the sheriff's office for questioning, deputies said.

Carver faces charges of carjacking, resisting arrest, fleeing and eluding, as well as battery on a person over the age of 65.

Deputies said they have had more than 100 encounters with Carver, who was out on bond after being charged with child abuse in January in the theft of a car with a baby in the back seat. He placed the child, who was in a car seat, in the lawn of a Longwood house on a cold morning before being arrested, deputies said.

In 2003, Carver was sentenced to four years in jail on grand theft and burglary charged. He also served a year in jail in 2000 on grand theft and burglary charges.

Carver has been arrested around 20 times by the Seminole County Sheriff's Office since 1991.