A convicted sex offender is back in police custody after authorities say he cut off his electronic ankle monitor on Tybee Island and disappeared earlier this month.
Stephen Bell, 40, classified by the state as a dangerous sexual predator, was captured Tuesday night by the US Coast Guard and the the Brevard County Sheriff's Office in Port Canaveral, Florida. They say he was found aboard a stolen sail boat.
The Coast Guard says Bell was spotted drifting on a sail boat 100 yards south of the entrance jetties at Port Canaveral. The Coast Guard responded to a call that the vessel was apparently disabled and drifting toward the jetties.
Coast Guard members at Station Port Canaveral recognized the boat's name, Showtime, as that of a vessel reported stolen from Tybee Island on April 10.
Bell is expected to go before a judge at an extradition hearing on Wednesday. The Chatham County Sheriff's Department says if Bell will not contest extradition to Georgia and will be returned here as soon as charges against him in Florida are settled.
Bell, convicted in 2004 of molesting a girl on Tybee Island, faces full revocation of his probated sentence, which runs through 2018. He is also facing charges for destroying state property by cutting his ankle monitor off, as well as charges in Florida for possession of a stolen boat.
The owners of the stolen boat have also been notified by officials.
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