Call him the Hospital Houdini.
A shackled Long Island burglary suspect escaped police custody early Sunday — shuffling out of a hospital, shoving aside a valet-parking-lot attendant and roaring off in a silver BMW, The Post has learned.
“It was like a movie,” said one stunned law-enforcement source. “We don’t know how he did it.”
Reputed heroin addict Kenneth Herlich, 27, of East Patchogue was still on the loose yesterday, sources said.
Herlich had been arrested at 12:41 a.m. Sunday and charged with burglary and resisting arrest. He was taken to Stony Brook University Medical Center in shackles for observation after complaining that he felt ill, sources said.
Just before 5 a.m., Herlich said he needed to go to the bathroom and, during the pit stop, managed to slip out of the emergency-room area, a hospital source said.
Cops later found the BMW abandoned near Herlich’s East Patchogue apartment complex, where he lives with his mother, wife and young daughter.
Spokesmen for Suffolk County police and the hospital declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.