Grandma wrongly jailed for 6 months after AI misidentifies her in crime 1000 miles away

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A woman in Tennessee was mistakenly arrested and held in jail for almost six months because an artificial intelligence system incorrectly matched her face to a suspect in a crime committed over 1,000 miles away.

In July 2025, 50-year-old Angela Lipps was arrested at her Tennessee home. Authorities in North Dakota used artificial intelligence to identify her in security footage related to a bank fraud investigation.

The arrest came despite Lipps insisting she had never even been to North Dakota.

Police in Fargo were investigating a series of scams where someone used a fake Army ID to steal thousands of dollars from banks. They used facial recognition technology to identify a possible suspect, Lipps, by comparing surveillance photos to her driver’s license and social media pictures. This confirmed she was the person responsible.

Li Lipps was arrested by US Marshals in Tennessee while she was caring for four children. They took her into custody at gunpoint, as she was wanted in North Dakota as a fugitive.

Grandma loses home, car, and dog after wrongful arrest

Since the legal issue began in a different state, Lipps was held in a Tennessee jail for almost four months without being allowed to pay bail while authorities arranged to send her to North Dakota. There, she faced charges like identity theft and illegally using someone else’s personal information.

Okay, so things started to fall apart for Lipps when she finally got a lawyer. That lawyer dug up her bank statements and transaction history, and it turned out she was actually in Tennessee whenever the investigators said she was supposedly committing fraud way up in Fargo – that’s over 1,200 miles away! It basically proved she couldn’t have been doing what they accused her of, like a perfect alibi in a game.

Prosecutors dismissed the case after examining the evidence, and Lipps was freed on Christmas Eve in 2025.

The experience had a devastating and lasting impact on Lipps. While she was incarcerated, she lost everything – her house, her car, and even her beloved dog.

She claims officials didn’t help her get home after she was released, so she had to depend on lawyers and people in the community for support.

Lipps is now one of at least nine people in the U.S. who have been wrongly arrested due to a mistake made by facial recognition technology.

“I’ve never been to North Dakota,” she said in interviews about the case. “It was so scary.”

Lipps shared on GoFundMe that she’s hoping for an apology from the police while she works to rebuild her life.

She explained that being in jail caused her to lose absolutely everything she owned. Her family tried to save her things by putting them in storage, but they couldn’t afford the bill, and it all went away. She lost her home, her income, her health coverage, her doctors, even her beloved dog and her car – a Chrysler Sebring convertible – along with everything that was inside it. It was a complete loss.

She also mentioned missing important holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving, as well as her birthday. On top of that, she felt embarrassed and humiliated by her neighbors witnessing her arrest.

I’m currently living in a trailer park with neighbors, and I’m facing a tough situation. I don’t have a car or any savings, and I feel stuck with no way to rebuild my life independently. It’s hard for me to imagine starting over with absolutely nothing, especially since I’ve always valued my independence.

She isn’t alone – AI has mistakenly identified people as criminals before, even when they weren’t involved in a crime.

Footage released in December 2023 shows an innocent man being arrested because an AI facial recognition system mistakenly identified him as someone who was barred from a casino.

I still can’t believe what happened in Baltimore in 2025! This teenager had his school’s AI mistake a bag of Doritos for a gun, and the police actually showed up with weapons drawn! It’s just crazy how these AI systems can make such huge mistakes and put people in really scary situations.

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2026-03-16 18:20