Charges: Fake Cop Robs Kids With BB Gun

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - A 20-year-old Farmington, Minnesota, man is accused of impersonating a cop, and using a BB gun to rob a group of kids of pocket money. He returned their money after robbing them.

Joseph Wayne Gilbertson is charged with first-degree aggravated robbery.

The evening of March 13, Gilbertson was walking his dog on the train tracks north of Farmington, near 205th Street and Colorado Avenue, when a group of four boys shined a flashlight at him, he told police.

The children told police Gilbertson shined his own flashlight at them, announced that he was a police officer and demanded they stop.

One of the boys ran away, but the other three stayed.

Gilbertson then took out a long-barreled BB gun and took money from from one of the boys, according to the criminal complaint. He then returned the money and walked toward Farmington.

Later in the evening, the boys pointed Gilbertson out to police in a Farmington parking lot.

When police told Gilbertson the boys were scared, he laughed.

"Yeah, they were so scared," he said, altering his voice in mimicry of one of the boys: "We're just trying to get home."

He told police he had thrown the gun into the water but was too intoxicated to remember where. Police found a black ops .177 caliber BB gun underneath some large power boxes.

If convicted, Gilbertson faces up to 20 years in jail and a $35,000 fine.