Officers on Saturday captured Johnathan Mabe, an inmate who escaped hours earlier from Sanford Correctional Center, a minimum-security prison facility in Lee County.
According to the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections, Mabe escaped Friday afternoon by jumping over a fence. Around midnight, corrections officers flying a drone spotted Mabe in woods a short distance from Sanford Correctional Center and apprehended him without incident.
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Mabe will be housed at Central Prison in Raleigh and will face charges for the escape, officials said.
Mabe, who has ties to the Sanford area, has a long criminal history. Records show Mabe's convictions date back to 2020, including drug charges, forgery, larceny, felony breaking and entering and others.
Before Friday's escape, he was readmitted to prison on Sept. 4 to serve a four-year sentence as an habitual felon, according to the Department of Public Safety. He was due for release in December 2026.
Three schools near the prison went into a soft lockdown Friday for 30 minutes after Mabe escaped. One student told WRAL News they thought it was a prank at first.
"It didn't feel real," said Hunter Jackson, a Lee County High School student. "There've been so many that people really don't take them seriously now."
It felt very real for Kimberly Nation, who had her son in school at the time.
"You don't know where he is [or] what his intentions are," she said. "I just felt at ease that it wasn't directly inside the school grounds. But you know, it's still alarming because it is around the corner from the school."