FARGO, N.D. – A 21-year-old man accused of robbing First Community CU here last month sent a text message to his girlfriend confessing to the crime as police were interviewing her.
Using the signals from Denver Lee Tergesen’s cell phone, authorities tracked him and arrested him inside a stolen car in Detroit Lakes, Minn.
After his arrest, Tergesen confessed to the Dec. 18 robbery of almost $10,000 at gunpoint with his brother’s Airsoft handgun and using his girlfriend’s car to flee from the credit union. Police were called to the scene after a teller reported that a man in a black ski mask and a blue hooded sweatshirt entered the credit union at 11:10 a.m. and pointed a gun, which had blue duct tape on it, at her and demanded money.
The man counted down and continued to point the gun at the teller before grabbing a cash drawer containing $9,584.70 and fleeing in a red Pontiac.
A witness told police the vehicle stopped near a dumpster and a man got out and "seemed to mess with the dumpster" before running back into the vehicle and driving away.
Police searching the dumpster found a black handgun with blue duct tape on it, a money tray and change inside the dumpster. Tergesen’s brother told police the gun, which fires plastic BBs, belonged to him and was missing from his apartment.
