Sect head nabbed after year on run

SALT LAKE CITY — Polygamous sect leader Lyle Jeffs was captured in South Dakota following nearly a year on the run after he pawned two pairs of pliers and provided a real identification card, authorities and the pawn shop owner said.

The suspicious pawn shop employee notified the owner that Jeffs was wanted by the FBI, who learned more about him online and alerted authorities.

Jeffs was alone near a lakeside marina and hours away from a compound in the state run by his polygamous group when an off-duty police detective spotted a pickup truck Thursday that a tipster told police Jeffs had been driving, said Eric Barnhart, FBI special agent in charge for the Salt Lake City Division.

Jeffs complied with officers when he was arrested Wednesday at a lakeside marina near the town of Yankton in the southeastern corner of South Dakota, Barnhart said. Authorities believe he had been in that area for the past two weeks and was living out of his pickup truck.

Authorities had been hunting for Jeffs since he escaped home confinement in Utah on June 18, 2016, ahead of his trial in an alleged multimillion-dollar food stamp fraud scheme.

The events leading to Jeffs’ capture started Tuesday when he went to the River City Treasures and Pawn shop and sold two pairs of Leatherman pliers for $37 and provided his ID, owner Kevin Haug said in an interview.

A store employee notified Haug that Jeffs was wanted by the FBI after Jeffs had left the store. Haug called police in Yankton and said he provided officers with store video and pawn paperwork.

Jeffs also visited the store last week and tried to sell a tool but the store did not buy them that time and Jeffs did not identify himself during the earlier visit. Jeffs during his first visit was fidgeting, seemed nervous and was “acting like a freak,” Haug said.