Escaped Georgia prison gang inmate James 'Hot Rod' Owenby is captured by police, officials say

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"Hot Rod" tried to speed away from police -- but the law won this race.

A Georgia inmate involved in a prison gang -- and who bears the nickname of the speedy car -- was taken into custody Thursday morning after escaping in broad daylight by stealing a truck during his time assigned to a work detail, officials say.

James Owenby and Zachery Rempley, who both fled the scene in Thomaston on Wednesday, are members of the Ghost Face Gangsters, according to records from the Georgia Department of Corrections. The Justice Department describes the group as a “violent, white supremacist street gang operated largely from inside prisons.”

James Rodney Owenby, left, and an image of a truck similar to the one he is accused of stealing. (Thomaston Police Department/Georgia Department of Corrections)

Rampley, who is serving time at the Spalding Correctional Institute in Griffin on an aggravated assault conviction, was the first of the two to be captured Thursday. He was taken into custody without incident in Dalton, about 135 miles from Thomaston, officials say. Owenby, who currently is being jailed for a burglary conviction, later was taken into custody in the same county, the Georgia Department of Corrections announced.

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The Thomaston Police Department says the pair were assigned to a work detail yesterday around noon when they stole one of the city’s trucks and “left the area in an unknown direction of travel.”

The white 2010 Ford pickup they are alleged to have taken, according to FOX5 Atlanta, has a Georgia license plate of GV1318A with a City of Thomaston Parks and Public Spaces logo on its doors. The station reports Owenby was cutting grass around the time he escaped. It was not immediately clear if the car has been found.