An attorney says he went to the downtown San Diego jail to visit a client and ended up becoming a prisoner himself.

U-T San Diego reported Friday that Erubey Lopez got his visitor's badge and was escorted to the visiting room, but his client never came.

When Lopez tried to use an intercom to ask about the delay, it was broken. He yelled and banged on the door, but it took four hours for a guard to discover him and let him out.

Sheriff's Cmdr. John Ingrassia confirmed the incident, calling it "unfortunate."

Ingrassia says inmates are usually brought to the visiting room within a half hour, but Lopez' client was still being booked, passing between various deputies, so the message that he had a visitor was somehow lost.