SOUTH DAKOTA -- Officials say they have located escaped sex offender Shane Jacobs whose GPS tracking bracelet was found near the Trumansburg School District campus in Tompkins County last Monday.
Jacobs was apprehended on Saturday by the South Dakota State Police, according to a spokesperson at New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (NYSDCCS).
State Police say they received information that Jacobs was coming to South Dakota. They located and positively identified the vehicle Jacobs’ was traveling in on Interstate 90.
The vehicle stopped at a gas station where police saw Jacobs with two adult women and a female minor. Police detained the women outside of the gas station store.
Jacobs left the gas station store and ran away. Police say they took him in into custody without incident after about 10 minutes. No additional charges have been filed at this time.
Jacobs is expected to be returned to New York in approximately 7-10 days, according to NYSDCCS.
State Parole officers based in Elmira put out a warrant for Jacobs’ arrest after learning that he had cut off the tracking bracelet last week.
Police told CNY Central on Sunday that Jacobs’ car was found abandoned on Route 79 in the Town of Enfield, about six miles south of where his GPS locator bracelet was found cut off in Trumansburg. Police did not know how long it had been there, but they searched a nearby house where they had thought Jacobs might be and did not find him.
The Trumansburg School District heightened security on Monday in light of the discovery. Police said they had been told that Jacobs could be the Ithaca or Syracuse areas. Jacobs reportedly has relatives and a girlfriend in Syracuse.
Jacobs is a level 2 sex offender who was convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl in 2001. He served 6 months in jail with a five year probation. Jacobs was separately convicted of robbery in 2008 and sentenced to five years in prison. He is currently on parole.
