Inmate’s jail break: Phones, wire cutters, a drone and $47,000

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Prison officials in South Carolina say an inmate has been captured in Texas after a second escape from a maximum security prison. The South Carolina Department of Corrections said in a Twitter message around early Friday that 46-year-old inmate Jimmy Causey is in custody. Agency spokeswoman Sommer Sharpe says Causey was arrested by the Texas Department of Public Safety around 3 a.m. The prison is about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Charleston.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina inmate broke out of a maximum-security prison using wire cutters apparently flown in by drone, officials said Friday, describing a new and devilishly hard-to-stop means of escape.

Convicted kidnapper Jimmy Causey, 46, was recaptured at a Texas motel before daybreak, more than two days after bolting to freedom in a plot worthy of a Hollywood script. It was the second time in 12 years that he escaped.

This time, he used a smuggled-in cellphone to coordinate the delivery of the breakout tools, investigators said. Then, with dusk approaching on the Fourth of July, he cut through four fences and left a dummy in his bed that fooled his guards. He got an 18-hour head start.

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This undated photo provided by the South Carolina Department of Corrections shows Jimmy Causey, who authorities continue to search for Thursday, July 6, 2017, after he escaped from Lieber Correctional Institution maximum-security prison in Ridgeville, S.C. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP)

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This undated photo provided by the South Carolina Department of Corrections shows Jimmy Causey, who authorities continue to search for Thursday, July 6, 2017, after he escaped from Lieber Correctional

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