Pennsylvania Student Fugitive Caught After Photo Appeared in Paper

A Bloomsburg University student was caught after he answered a man-on-the-street question and posed for a photo for the town newspaper.

A Bloomsberg student wanted by police for bail-jumping in a years-old DUI and drug case was caught on Sunday — just days after he appeared in a Bloomsburg Press Enterprise man-on-the-street interview piece.

Perhaps the case was so old Jake Close had forgotten about it before telling his joke about the Washington Redskins team name (“I think they should keep the same name, but change the mascot to a potato”) to the newspaper. Per the Associated Press, Close had jumped bail in Ithaca, New York, years ago. Bloomsburg police had been searching for him for a month before a campus cop saw his photo in the newspaper.

As a commenter on Romenesko points out, Close was active on Facebook before his arrest — so, really, it was likely only a matter of time. He’s been sent to prison on $25,000 bail, pending extradition to New York.

In other news, ugh, how lame are those responses to the question?

[Romenesko | AP]