Police arrest MDI man on bad check charges Tools, outboard motor bought in Ellsworth

SOUTHWEST HARBOR – A man who allegedly used bad checks to buy at least $3,000 worth of tools and machinery recently in Ellsworth made bail Tuesday after being chased down and arrested the previous evening by a town police officer, according to police.

Leon Jacobs, 29, who lives at different places on Mount Desert Island, was arrested at about 5 p.m. Monday by Officer James Ohmeis.

The suspect paid $500 bail on Tuesday and is scheduled to appear in Ellsworth District Court on May 20, according to the Hancock County jail administrator.

Jacobs is accused of passing bad checks, apparently on a closed or stolen account, at Agway and Ellsworth Builders Supply, or EBS, both in Ellsworth.

He allegedly wrote two checks to Agway, including one for $2,500 for an outboard motor, in addition to other checks totaling $1,125 to EBS for numerous tools.

Jacobs could face other charges once the investigation is completed, police said Tuesday.

Earlier Monday, Jacobs bolted from the Agway store on High Street in Ellsworth after employees called police. He saw a cruiser drive into the parking lot.

Ohmeis was patrolling the East Ridge Road in Southwest Harbor late Monday afternoon when a man flagged him down to report that a man had “jumped into the woods” when he saw the police car.

Ohmeis, who wasn’t looking for anyone in particular at the time, found footprints in the area, but returned to his patrol, he said Tuesday. Area police, however, had been asked to watch for Jacobs, who was wanted on a warrant for passing bad checks.

A dispatcher soon called Ohmeis and said the man who had flagged him down earlier had spied the same man who had fled into the woods.

The officer was told about the outstanding warrant and soon found the man using a pay phone at a minimall at Seal Cove.

Ohmeis told Jacobs that he matched the description of a man police were seeking on a warrant, but Jacobs told the officer he didn’t have any identification. Jacobs told Ohmeis that he lived just around the corner from the mini-mall, at Norwood Cove Apartments, and the officer offered to drive him to retrieve his identification.

Ohmeis said Jacobs was “very polite.” The officer assured him that he needed only to be sure he wasn’t the wanted man.

When the two arrived at the second-floor apartment where Jacobs said he lived with his grandfather, he asked Ohmeis to wait outside. The officer didn’t press the issue, since Jacobs had not been arrested at the time, Ohmeis said.

After two minutes passed, Ohmeis figured Jacobs had had plenty of time to retrieve some identification. A second-floor window was open, and when the officer looked toward the minimall, he saw Jacobs fleeing.

“At that point, he’d answered my question. There was no more guessing,” Ohmeis said. “I knew he was the guy I was looking for.”

Jacobs was hiding under a pickup truck at the minimall when Ohmeis arrived and arrested him.

The officer said Jacobs’ grandfather did not live at the apartment house, but rather a friend did.

Jacobs is known to live in Bass Harbor, a village in Tremont, and at other places around MDI, Ohmeis said.