LINCOLN — An escapee's bid for freedom from the Frontier County jail was cut short after just 13 minutes Wednesday, thanks to alert citizens who spotted him running down an alley and hiding in a culvert.
Hap E. Wells, 36, was being held in the jail in Curtis, Neb., since his arrest in Red Willow County on Dec. 12 for five felony charges of burglary and four charges of theft by receiving.
Frontier County Sheriff Dan Rupp reported that Wells apparently scaled the fence around the jail's exercise area at 4:46 p.m.
Rupp said a citizen saw Wells running down an alley away from the jail. A second citizen, a volunteer firefighter, heard reports of the escape on his scanner and positioned his vehicle two blocks from the jail, where his son told him there was a culvert under the highway that would be large enough for a person to walk through. After spotting the escapee in the culvert, the firefighter notified a deputy.
Wells was back in custody by 5 p.m.
Rupp declined to provide the names of the citizens who helped foil the escape.
Wells was taken to the McCook hospital to be treated for cuts to his hand and arm, inflicted by razor wire atop the jail fence.
Wells had been arrested by McCook police in connection with a string of burglaries of McCook-area businesses from September through early December. When he was arrested, police also found computers and other items in his home that had been stolen from area businesses and from an Oberlin, Kan., school.
In an affidavit for Wells' arrest, a McCook police officer reported that Wells, who was on probation for another crime, had recently tested positive for methamphetamine use.
Wells was being held in Frontier County because neighboring Red Willow County does not have a jail.
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