Angela Lipps was arrested for alleged bank fraud committed in a state where she never set foot. She was jailed for half a year, four months without bail, and was never called to give a statement.
An American woman spent almost six months in prison after being wrongly identified by a facial recognition system used by the police in Fargo, in the US state of North Dakota.
Angela Lipps50 years old, mother of three children and grandmother of five grandchildren, was arrested last July at the door of her home by US federal agents, while she was babysitting four children. Officers said she was being sought by alleged bank fraud in North Dakota, despite asserting that she had never been to that state and had always lived in north-central Tennessee, more than 1,000 miles away — the state where she was being detained.
According to American radio, the first to report the case, the woman was initially arrested in a Tennessee jail as a “fugitive” from North Dakota, without the possibility of bail for almost four months. He was provided with a public attorney for the extradition process and conveyed the information that he would have to travel to North Dakota to contest the charges.
The error dates back to an investigation into bank fraud that occurred in April and May 2025. Fargo police documents obtained by the radio station explain.
Video surveillance footage showed a woman using a fake US Army military ID to raise tens of thousands of dollars. To try to identify the suspect, investigators used facial recognition software with artificial intelligence (AI), which identified Angela Lipps as a match.
The police will have little or no additional verification before proceeding with the case. The documents indicate that a detective considered the suspect’s facial features, body type and hair to match those of Lipps. Still, the woman claims that She was never contacted by Fargo police to provide clarification before being arrested.
After the arrest, Fargo police delayed 108 dias to transfer her from prison in Tennessee to North Dakota. Only in December, after having spent more than five months behind bars, was she finally interrogated by authorities in that state.
The defense was, however, able to present bank records that showed that Lipps was in Tennessee, more than 1,900 kilometers from the scene of the crimeson the dates on which the fraud occurred. The woman was released on Christmas Eve and the case was eventually dropped.
According to the victim’s own report, the police did not even pay for the trip home. With no money, she was stranded in Fargo until local lawyers raised funds to pay for a hotel and a nonprofit arranged for her return to Tennessee.
Lipps says he lost his house, his car and even his dog during the months she was imprisoned. He also tells the radio that he never received an apology from the Fargo police.
