Tennessee grandmother says she was jailed for a North Dakota crime she had never even visited to commit

Arrested in Tennessee for a case tied to North Dakota

Angela Lipps, a 50-year-old grandmother from Tennessee, says her life was upended on July 14, 2025, when she was arrested at gunpoint by what she described as “a team of U.S. Marshals” while she was babysitting four young children.

The arrest was linked to a robbery and bank fraud investigation in Fargo, North Dakota. Lipps said she was never called, interviewed, or otherwise contacted before officers showed up and put her in handcuffs. According to her account, the accusation came as a complete surprise, which is a generous way to describe a system that seems to have skipped a few steps.

How AI got involved

The case moved forward after investigators ran surveillance images from the Fargo case through Clearview AI, a facial recognition tool. According to reporting cited in the case, the software identified Lipps as a potential match.

The crime under investigation involved a woman accused of using a fake military ID to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars from several banks in Fargo. Authorities then linked Lipps to the case through the AI result, even though, she said, she had never been to North Dakota.

Fargo Police Chief Dave Zibolski later said he was unaware the tool had been used and “would not have allowed to be used. It has since been prohibited,” he said at a conference.

The software, as police described it, “identified a potential suspect with similar features to Angela Lipps.”

Months in jail while the case dragged on

Lipps says she spent more than five months in jail while waiting for the matter to be sorted out. A verified GoFundMe set up on her behalf said she had not only never been to North Dakota, but had never even been on an airplane.

“I have never been to North Dakota or even any of the surrounding states,” she said.

She also said, “I sat in a county jail in Tennessee for 108 days. I had no bail. No one interviewed me. I just sat and waited.” During that time, she claimed she was not able to get her dentures.

On October 30, authorities flew her to North Dakota for trial. Lipps said it was her first time on an aircraft and that she was “terrified.”

The case fell apart quickly

When she finally had a chance to defend herself, Lipps said “it took five minutes for the whole thing to fall apart.” Her bank records reportedly showed she was in Tennessee when the Fargo crime happened.

The charges were dismissed on Christmas Eve.

Lipps said the release was hardly a happy ending. She claimed she was sent out into winter weather wearing summer clothes and was not offered a ride home. After months in jail, the logistics apparently remained one more thing the system could not be bothered to handle.

What she says she lost

Lipps said the detention cost her nearly everything. According to her account, her family placed her belongings in storage, but the bill could not be paid. She also said she lost her rental, Social Security Income, health insurance, dog, and car.

Her lawyers are reportedly reviewing possible civil rights claims, though no lawsuit has been filed yet.

For now, the case stands as a bleak reminder that facial recognition software can create a very convincing answer, even when the evidence, geography, and common sense are all waving their arms in the corner.