Charges: Man Stole Car, Impersonated Sheriff's Deputy
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- An Andover man was behind bars Monday, accused of stealing a car from a car dealership.
According to the criminal complaint, 24-year-old Delroy Bowe walked into the New Brighton Ford dealership Thursday afternoon and asked to test drive a 2013 Explorer.
After he drove the SUV, he asked about several other vehicles. When the salesman walked in to get the keys, Bowe took off in the Explorer.
"One of those classic cases where someone comes in for a test drive and then basically steals the vehicle and that's what's alleged here," said Ramsey County Attorney John Choi.
Choi said that someone along Country Road H2 in Mounds View saw Bowe, taking stickers off the car.
The complaint says Bowe was impersonating a sheriff deputy asking if he could borrow a screwdriver.
"He was seen putting as sheriff's license plate on this vehicle," Choi said.
Bowe was caught a short time later.
Officers learned he was arrested a week earlier in Hennepin County for the same crime.
This time sheriff's deputies found police clothing and scuba gear inside the stolen vehicle.
They say the scuba gear was stolen from a shop in Hudson, Wis.
"This person clearly has somewhat of a track record of doing this sort of bizarre fraudulent types of activities," Choi said.
Bowe is connected to similar crimes in different parts of the country -- from vehicle theft in Florida to a case of impersonating a fire fighter in Mississippi.
Bowe's been accused of playing this game of theft and impersonation in the past.
Bowe is charged with two counts of felony theft of a motor vehicle.
In a post-Miranda interview, Bowe told investigators that he does "whatever the voices tell me to do."
He suggested he took the vehicle from the New Brighton dealership because bad things would happen if he didn't.
During that interview he closed his eyes and slumped forward and fell onto the floor. He seemed to avoid hitting his head on the floor as he fell and acted as if he was having a seizure. Medics arrived and believe Bowe was faking. He was accused of faking a seizure in Dallas, Texas, in an incident where he claimed to be a ROTC cadet from Mississippi in town visiting his mother.
Charges are pending against him in Hennepin County.
Sources close to the investigation say look for possible charges in a few more Minnesota towns in the near future.