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Denver, Colorado: a police sergeant cited Flock license-plate-camera records of a woman's truck passing through the town of Bow Mar to accuse her of stealing a $25 package and issued a petty-theft summons; she spent about two weeks proving she had only driven through, and the summons was voided

On 27 September 2025 a sergeant from the Columbine Valley Police Department, which polices the small town of Bow Mar, came to the south Denver home of a woman in her 40s who works in financial services and accused her of stealing a package worth about $25 from a Bow Mar doorstep on 22 September. He cited Bow Mar's Flock camera records showing her truck in town between 11:52 and 12:09, said he also had the victim's doorbell video, refused to show it to her, and issued a petty-theft summons with a December court date. She had driven through Bow Mar to a tailor's appointment. Over about two weeks she gathered her truck's camera footage and GPS records and the tailor's camera images and sent them to the police chief, who wrote on 15 October that the summons had been voided. She describes emotional distress and fear for her career. The town said the officer had a reasonable belief at the time but would face unspecified disciplinary action; it did not apologise. No source reports that the cameras misread anything.

AI system
Flock Safety license plate readers
Flock Safety
Occurred
27 Sept 2025 to 15 Oct 2025
Reported
27 October 2025
Event location
United States
What the AI did
Made a claim about the person
Reported harm
Legal HarmPsychological Distress
Whose AI use
An institution’s AI use
Setting
Justice · Privacy
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 6 sources, 1 underlying account
6 claims: 6 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: Flock Safety automated license-plate-reader cameras operated for the town of Bow Mar, Colorado (described by the Colorado Sun as AI-powered), whose records placed her vehicle in town during the theft window

What Happened

Denverite, the Colorado Sun and CBS Colorado each interviewed the woman and viewed her doorbell video of the 27 September 2025 encounter. On it the sergeant says that nothing gets in or out of Bow Mar without police knowing and that Bow Mar's cameras showed her in town from 11:52 to 12:09, the window when a package valued at $25 or less was taken. He said he had the victim's doorbell video showing her, declined to show it to her because she denied the theft, declined her offer of footage from her truck's cameras, and left a summons for petty theft with a December court date. She later found the victim's doorbell video posted on Nextdoor and says the person shown did not get into a truck. Her truck's footage showed two trips through Bow Mar without stopping, more than a quarter mile from the theft; she also compiled GPS records and the tailor's camera images and drafted an affidavit. She and her husband say they left messages with the chief for days; a week after the encounter the department posted on Nextdoor asking for footage of a green Rivian truck. She sent her evidence to the chief on 11 October, and on 15 October he replied that after reviewing it the summons had been voided. The town administrator's statement says the exculpatory evidence reached the department about two weeks later, when the charge was dropped, and that the officer would be disciplined. Moneywise wrote in September 2026 that data security analysts saw no indication the Flock technology malfunctioned, and a criminal-justice scholar it quoted attributed the error to investigators' tunnel vision.

Reported harm

She was accused of theft and issued a petty-theft summons on the strength of Flock camera records of her truck passing through town, spent about two weeks proving her whereabouts before it was voided, and describes emotional distress and fear for her career (her account and recordings, reported by Denverite, the Colorado Sun and CBS Colorado; the town confirms the charge was dropped).

Outcome

Resolved

The police chief voided the summons on 15 October 2025 after she submitted her evidence on 11 October. The Town of Columbine Valley said in November 2025 that the officer would face appropriate disciplinary action, without specifying it, and maintained that he had a reasonable belief when issuing the summons. The town had not apologised as of 11 November 2025. The case was retold nationally, including by Moneywise on 8 September 2026.

What remains unknown

  • Which court the summons was returnable to, and whether any record of it remains.
  • What disciplinary action was taken against the officer.
  • Who took the package.
  • Whether she pursued the legal claim she said she was considering; no lawsuit was found on CourtListener or in news through September 2026.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The sergeant told her on her doorbell video, viewed by Denverite, the Colorado Sun and CBS Colorado, that Bow Mar's Flock cameras placed her vehicle in town during the theft window; the Colorado Sun describes the system as AI-powered license plate readers. The camera records were not reported as wrong. The town's statement does not mention Flock.

6 claims: 6 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported On 27 September 2025 a Columbine Valley Police Department sergeant, who polices the neighbouring town of Bow Mar, came to a woman's home in south Denver, accused her of stealing a package worth about $25 from a Bow Mar doorstep on 22 September, citing Bow Mar's Flock camera records of her vehicle in town from 11:52 to 12:09, and issued her a petty-theft summons with a December court date.

Causal attribution. The accusation rested on the Flock records placing her vehicle in Bow Mar, together with a doorbell video the sergeant said showed her; the decision to accuse her and issue a summons was the sergeant's.

  • denverite.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'On Sept. 27,'; 'The sergeant later revealed that Bow Mar’s cameras showed she was in town from “11:52 until 12:09 exactly,” which is apparently when the package — total value $25 — was stolen.'; 'The sergeant left her with a summons for petty theft, a December court date and a gnawing feeling in her gut.'
  • coloradosun.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Footage from Flock surveillance cameras showing'; 'driving through the town from 11:52 a.m. to 12:09 p.m. on the day of the theft.'; 'before handing her the summons with a December court date.'
  • coloradosun.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'A Columbine Valley police officer who used surveillance from AI-powered license plate readers to wrongly accuse a Denver woman of stealing a $25 package will be disciplined, town officials said.'
Reported The sergeant refused to show her the theft video he said proved her guilt and declined her offer of footage from her truck's cameras, telling her she could bring it to court.

Causal attribution. Conduct of the officer, as recorded on her doorbell camera and described by her.

Reported She had driven through Bow Mar on 22 September only to reach a tailor's appointment; over about two weeks she compiled her truck's camera footage and GPS records and the tailor's camera images, sent them to the police chief on 11 October, and on 15 October the chief wrote that the summons had been voided.

Causal attribution. The town's statement confirms the charge was dropped after she submitted evidence; it maintains the officer had a reasonable belief when issuing the summons.

  • denverite.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'She had, in fact, driven through Bow Mar on Sept. 22 — but only to visit her tailor for a 12 p.m. gown fitting ahead of a charity event, she said.'; 'Eventually, on Oct. 11, she sent all the evidence to the chief.'; 'we have voided the summons that was issued,'
  • cbsnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'It was not until approximately two weeks later that exculpatory evidence was submitted to our department for review, and the decision was made to drop the charges.'
Reported She says the accusation caused her emotional distress and sleeplessness and worried her because a theft allegation could damage her career in financial services.

Causal attribution. Her own account of the effects of the accusation.

  • denverite.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'This incident has caused me significant emotional distress, financial burden, and professional concern,'; 'since a theft allegation could damage or derail her career in financial services.'
  • coloradosun.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'I didn’t do a lot of sleeping the first couple of nights,'
Reported The Town of Columbine Valley said the officer would face appropriate disciplinary action without saying what it was, and had not apologised to her as of November 2025.

Causal attribution. Institutional response to the accusation.

Reported No source reports that the Flock cameras misread anything: her vehicle was in Bow Mar when recorded, and the error lay in linking that presence to the theft.

Causal attribution. Context for the AI role: the automated records were accurate; the inference drawn from them was wrong.

Sources

6 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Denverite, 27 October 2025 (Andrew Kenney), the first report. Full body read via the r.jina.ai relay on 2026-09-29 (direct curl 403 on the sibling Denverite URL). Denverite viewed her doorbell video and truck footage and the chief's email as provided by her. Applies to s1.

The Colorado Sun, 28 October 2025. Direct curl 429; full body read from an Internet Archive capture (gzip-decoded) on 2026-09-29. Separate interview and viewing of the doorbell footage, but the account still rests on the accused woman and her recordings, so grouped with s1. Applies to s2.

CBS News Colorado, updated 13 November 2025 (Karen Morfitt), read by curl on 2026-09-29 (HTTP 200). Carries the Town of Columbine Valley administrator's statement verbatim; the rest is her interview and doorbell footage. Applies to s3.

Denverite, 11 November 2025, read via r.jina.ai on 2026-09-29 (direct curl 403). Quotes the town statement on discipline. Applies to s4.

The Colorado Sun, 11 November 2025, read from an Internet Archive capture on 2026-09-29 (direct curl 429). Says the town did not reveal the discipline and public-records requests were unfulfilled. Applies to s5.

Moneywise, 8 September 2026 (syndicated to Yahoo Finance, the queue lead), read via r.jina.ai on 2026-09-29 (direct 403). Retells the CBS Colorado report and adds commentators; derivative, used only for the no-malfunction observation. It misspells her surname once. Applies to s6.

Event countries: United States. Affected-person countries: United States. Court countries: Unknown.

The accusation was made at her home in south Denver and concerned a theft in Bow Mar, Colorado; the summons set a December court date, but the court is not named, so no court country is recorded.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-29: Published as a concrete case of a police accusation built on automated license-plate-reader records, with a documented adverse consequence (a petty-theft summons later voided). The account rests on the accused woman's interviews and recordings reported by three Colorado outlets, and on the town's statement. She is not named here.

People described

A Denver resident in her 40s working in financial services (not named here), accused of package theft

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

The accused woman (1 other person). Her husband helped gather evidence but no harm to him is reported, so he is not counted.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#flock#alpr#license-plate-reader#false-accusation#police#colorado#denver#justice

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Denver, Colorado: a police sergeant cited Flock license-plate-camera records of a woman's truck passing through the town of Bow Mar to accuse her of stealing a $25 package and issued a petty-theft summons; she spent about two weeks proving she had only driven through, and the summons was voided. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-denver-columbine-valley-police-flock-alpr-package-theft-summons-voided

BibTeX

@misc{2025_denver_columbine_valley_police_flock_alpr_package_theft_summons_voided,
  title = {Denver, Colorado: a police sergeant cited Flock license-plate-camera records of a woman's truck passing through the town of Bow Mar to accuse her of stealing a \$25 package and issued a petty-theft summons; she spent about two weeks proving she had only driven through, and the summons was voided},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-denver-columbine-valley-police-flock-alpr-package-theft-summons-voided}
}

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