A Tennessee grandmother says she spent nearly six months behind bars after being wrongly identified by AI facial recognition in a North Dakota bank fraud investigation.
Angela Lipps, 50, was arrested in July 2025 after Fargo police linked her to a case involving the alleged use of a fake U.S. Army identification card to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars from banks, WDAY reports.
Lipps, a mother of three and grandmother of five who has spent most of her life in north-central Tennessee, says she had never even been to North Dakota when authorities accused her of the crime.
“It was so scary, I can still see it in my head, over and over again.”
Police relied on facial recognition software to identify the suspect captured in surveillance video, according to court records. After the software flagged Lipps as a match, investigators compared the image with her Tennessee driver’s license and social media photos and concluded she resembled the suspect.
Lipps was arrested at her home by U.S. Marshals on July 14th while babysitting four children and was jailed in Tennessee for nearly four months as a fugitive before being transported to North Dakota.
Her attorney later obtained bank records showing she was more than 1,200 miles away in Tennessee at the time the alleged fraud took place.
“Around the same time she’s depositing Social Security checks … she is buying cigarettes at a gas station, around the same time, she is buying a pizza, she is using a cash app to buy an Uber Eats.”
The charges were dismissed on Christmas Eve after investigators reviewed the records and interviewed Lipps for the first time.
“I’ve never been to North Dakota, I don’t know anyone from North Dakota.”
After her release, Lipps was stranded in Fargo without money for travel or lodging. Local defense attorneys helped cover a hotel room and food before a nonprofit worker drove her to Chicago so she could return home to Tennessee.
“I’m just glad it’s over. I’ll never go back to North Dakota.”
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at CapitalAI Daily are not investment advice. Investors should do their own due diligence before making any decisions involving securities, cryptocurrencies, or digital assets. Your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. CapitalAI Daily does not recommend the buying or selling of any assets, nor is CapitalAI Daily an investment advisor. See our Editorial Standards and Terms of Use.