Accused burglar captured shortly after escape

CURTIS, Nebraska -- A Frontier County, Nebraska, prisoner enjoyed only 13 minutes of freedom after scaling the wall of the exercise area of the jail in Curtis late Wednesday afternoon.

Sheriff Dan Rupp said this morning that at 4:46 p.m., a citizen spotted a prisoner, identified as Hap E. Wells, 36 years old, running southbound down the alley behind the jail. Rupp said that a volunteer firefighter who had heard the report on his scanner/radio drove to a location two blocks south of the jail where his son told him there was a culvert under Highway 23 large enough to walk through. The firefighter spotted a subject in the culvert and alerted the county deputy on duty.

The prison was taken into custody with no resistance 13 minutes after he was reported in the alley behind the jail, Sheriff Rupp said.

The prisoner suffered cuts on his hand and arm caused by the fence at the top of the exercise yard wall, and was transported by the deputy to Community Hospital of McCook for treatment.

Wells was being held in the Curtis jail on a number of burglary and theft charges from several surrounding counties, Sheriff Rupp said.

Wells, and 36-year-old Tammy Knight, also of McCook, have been bound over to Red Willow County district court on charges of theft in connection with burglaries at McCorkle Motors, Quality Irrigation and Stockman's Feed and Supply, all in McCook.

Wells faces seven felonies and one misdemeanor; Knight faces five felonies and one misdemeanor. Each is being held on a $100,000/10 percent bond.

Wells and Knight are also implicated in burglaries in Red Willow and Furnas counties and in Oberlin, Kansas.