Probation officer gives office BJ to boot-camp teen
Fugitive Watch: Jacob Wolsleban Tripped Up By Unique Tattoo
Monday, August 2, 2010 at 10:30 am
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Wolsleban escaped custody July 24 thanks to a Dawson County deputy taking pointers from television deputies Enos Strate and Barney Fife. The 6-foot-8, 260 pound Wolsleban had been arrested on several charges including burglary and bad checks when he was taken to a Lexington, Nebraska hospital for an undisclosed medical condition.
He escaped when the deputy unlocked his handcuffs to allow him to wash his hands for an exam. (Contrary to the suggestion, he was receiving, not giving the exam.) Wolsleban subsequently ran, while the deputy, instead of chasing him, went to a nurse's station to call in the escape. Afterwards the deputy had trouble making pursuit because the hospital locked all its doors as Wolsleban fled. This was not one of the finer moments in American law enforcement.
He ran to his mother's house, which was nearby, and took off in his girlfriend's new 2010 Chevy pickup. (Something definitely NOT covered in the warranty.) Wolsleban zigzagged across five states -- including Wyoming, Colorado and Kansas -- eventually ditching the truck in South Dakota and stealing two more. Verizon Wireless helped lawmen trace Wolsleban's movements through his cell phone use.
He was finally spotted July 28 when he stopped for gas and munchies at the Ampride in Stratton, Colorado. Having switched out of the long pants and hospital gown to shorts, one of the clerks noticed Wolsleban's tattoo, which was described in a police dispatch.
"If he had long pants on no one would've noticed," said store manager Marjo Dietz. "He was nicely dressed. This guy, you wouldn't have paid attention to normally. He was a nice-looking guy."
Dietz called it in, and after a chase on I-70 which reached speeds of nearly 100 mph, Wolsleban was apprehended on a country road in a stolen 2009 Ford Expedition about six miles west of Flagler, Colorado, and arrested without incident.
See last Monday's episode of Fugitive Watch: Man Wanted For Rape Found In Dryer
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