Metro

Houdini in chains

NORWICH, Conn. — The authorities took no chances with “Houdini” this time.

A shooting suspect who escaped from NYPD cops in their own unmarked car — while cuffed and shackled — was locked up tighter than the real Harry Houdini for the ride back to New York yesterday as the officers faced disciplinary action.

Jose Rodriguez, 27, was chained at the arms, legs and waist and surrounded by law-enforcement authorities as he was driven in a three- vehicle convoy from a Connecticut court house at about 2:15 p.m.

Rodriguez sparked a three-state man hunt Wednesday after escaping from the NYPD in New Jer sey after he was ar rested for a Nov. 1 shooting in The Bronx.

One sergeant was placed on modified duty and a detective was suspended over the escape, said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

Rodriguez was finally apprehended at 3:18 a.m. Thursday at the Mictrotel Inns & Suites in Uncasville, Conn.

Connecticut State Police Sgt. James Powers reported that Rodriguez was taken into custody by the US Marshals Service.

Surrounded by three lawmen, Rodriguez, wrapped in chains, shuffled into Superior Court in Norwich at 1 p.m. to face Judge Barbara Jongbloed.

He agreed to return to New York to face charges and had to contort himself into an awkward position to sign papers agreeing not to fight extradition as a court worker held up the documents.

Rodriguez’s adventure began Wednesday afternoon when three cops from the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force spotted him in a Nissan Rogue SUV near Co-op City and tailed him over the George Washington Bridge, law-enforcement sources said.

Rodriguez, who has an outstanding DWI warrant, was wanted for questioning in the nonfatal shooting of a 26-year-old man.

The NYPD cops pulled him over at around 1 p.m. at the Holiday Inn in Fort Lee, NJ.

The officers slapped Rodriguez in cuffs and leg irons and put him in the back seat of their unmarked car and left him alone as they searched his SUV.

He somehow managed to hop into the driver’s seat to make his getaway, the sources said.

Additional reporting by Jamie Schram

ikimulisa.livingston@nypost.com