A
South Dakota man who posed as a DEA agent in December to rob a Tustin
man and his family pleaded guilty Tuesday to first-degree burglary and impersonating an officer.
James Robert Anderson was then sentenced to two years in state prison, catching a break because the original arrest had the 36-year-old facing a kidnapping rap that could have put him away much longer.
]
Claiming to be a Drug Enforcement Agency officer, Anderson took a man's cash and identification Dec. 10 in Santa Ana. That night, he went to the man's home in the 15000
block of Pasadena Avenue in Tustin, showed the robbery victim's
wife a badge and DEA identification and told her her husband had been busted
on drug charges.
Anderson then ordered everyone in the
residence to empty their wallets, explaining the money would be returned
once he completed the “investigation.”
A real police investigation led officers to an Anaheim Motel 6, where Anderson was busted.
Previous coverage:
Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.