An escaped inmate is still on the loose after walking away from the Jacksonville Fairgrounds on Thursday.
Serial thief Gary Thigpen was there as a work trusty, which means he was working on a site with a supervised group of inmates, wearing jail uniforms.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office escape report said Thigpen was last seen cleaning out the cow barn at the Jacksonville Fairgrounds.
After the maintenance man noticed Thigpen was missing, he saw that one of the roller doors had been rolled up.
“They have to have someone with them all the time,” said Jacksonville Fairgrounds Vice President of Marketing Gayle Hart. “We were all baffled. I mean, we have not had this happen before. So we were totally baffled. This guy had worked with us only a few weeks.”
Thigpen had eight months left on his one-year sentence for felony theft.
#JSO is searching for escaped inmate: Gary M. Thigpen, 23 years old. Please RETWEET - Info: https://t.co/F4z8Kfcq9k #JAX #Jacksonville pic.twitter.com/4J02FAHTHe
— Jax Sheriff's Office (@JSOPIO) October 28, 2016
He was arrested in March after a loss prevention officer at Walmart said he saw Thigpen stuff two fishing lines down his pants and walk out without paying.
It’s the seventh time he’s been convicted and served jail time for theft since 2012.
Hart said Thigpen’s escape will not cause the Jacksonville Fairground’s to re-think its inmate work program.
“Absolutely not. It’s just one person that made a decision for himself,” said Hart.
“This obviously was a trusty that couldn’t be trusted,” said Action News Jax Crime and Safety Expert Ken Jefferson. “There are times when they get an itch to want to not be on work release and not go back to jail, and they leave. But what they’re doing is adding more time to their sentence.”
A JSO spokesperson said Thigpen was not wearing an ankle monitor.
Cox Media Group
