Last week, San Mateo County Sheriff Carlos Bolanos sent four officers from the San Francisco Bay Area all the way to Indiana to raid a garage licensed to make custom Batmobiles modeled on the classic car from the 1960s TV series. Why? According to ABC7 Bay Area News, "one of the sheriff's friends ordered a Batmobile and wasn't happy with how long it's taking." From reporter Dan Noyes's ABC7 story:
Owner Mark Racop has nine Batmobiles [$210,000/each] in production. He tells us [realtor Sam] Anagnostou was first in line, but missed a $20,000 payment: "And he disappeared on me for over eight months, almost nine months."
Racop moved Anagnostou to the bottom of the list; he'd have to wait a year and a half or two for his Batmobile.
Racop says, "He didn't like that, he exploded. He did pay off the entire car at that point, but he was absolutely livid to find out that his car was going to be delayed."
Apparently, Anagnostou filed complaints with San Mateo police and then a lawsuit that was dismissed, finally calling his buddy the sheriff to help. According to Racop, when the cops showed up at his garage (unfortunately not called the Bat Cave), they didn't seize the car but rather some files. However, they did arrest and release him, froze his bank account, and charged him with Obtaining Money by False Pretenses, and Diversion of Construction Funds.
"I was horrified," Racop told ABC7. "I've never gone through anything like this ever before in my life, I am on the side of good. As a Batman fan since I was 2 years old, this was a completely opposite side. I love '66 Batman and Batman always stood with the law."
