Jacob Magruder, 12, Jailed When Cops Mistake Him For 17-Year-Old Brother

12-year-old put in jail by mistake: wlfi.com

At the age of 12, Jacob Magruder has already seen the inside of a jail cell.

But not because of anything he's done wrong -- the cops in Jasper County, Ind., locked him up when they mistook him for his 17-year-old brother.

The older brother, whose name is not being made public, was recently arrested and Jacob went with his parents to deal with authorities.

Jacob was waiting quietly in the lobby when a police officer walked into the room.

"I saw a police officer and he had a phone and he goes, 'i=Is this the boy I'm supposed to take,' and the lady goes, 'Yeah,'" Jacob told WLFI-TV.

Jacob was then asked to stand up as the officer patted him down.

"He said, 'Can you put your hands on the wall and spread your legs?' and he checked me and he was like, 'Just to make sure you have no weapons on you,'" Jacob told the station.

He said he didn't try to explain his situation because he had been taught to respect his elders.

Jacob was then told to get into holding cell 1206, where he sat for several minutes before the snafu was discovered by the Jasper County jailers, according to KSDK-TV.

"They said, 'I'm sorry, it was just a misunderstanding.' They said, 'You can give your brother a hug,' and all that. I gave him a hug and he started bawling and I started bawling," Jacob told the station.

As might be expected, Jacob's encounter with the law was devastating to his mother, Michelle Magruder, even more than the arrest of her older son.

"He was holding his belt in one hand and had tears coming down his face and I said, 'Jacob, where were you?' and he said, 'I was in jail," Magruder told WLFI-TV. "I said, 'What do you mean, did you ask for them to show you?' and he said, 'No.' "

Jasper County Sheriff Terry Risner told the station an on-going internal investigation is being conducted at this time.

"The incident involved a possible miscommunication and wrongful identification of a person that was at the sheriff's office when the incident was reported," Sheriff Risner said.

However, the experience seems to have made little Jacob skeptical.

"He had his radio. He should have called up there to check because he should have known that a 17-year-old does not look like me," Jacob said.

Sherriff Terry Risner would not say if anyone involved in this incident has been disciplined. Meanwhile, the investigation into how this happened continues.

This isn't the first report of cops mistaking someone for a relative recently.

Earlier this month, Mitch Torbett, of Signal Mountain, Tenn., spent two days behind bars trying to convince the police they really were looking for his twin brother, Mike, who had a federal warrant for his arrest, but died two years ago.