Criminal charges dropped in Bay Area Batmobile case

This week, the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office announced that criminal charges against the owner of an Indiana specialty car shop that makes Batmobile replicas will be dropped.

The case attracted public attention last month when San Mateo Sheriff Carlos Bolanos sent four investigators to raid the garage of Fiberglass Freaks owner Mark Racop, after receiving a call from Bay Area real estate broker Sam Anagnostou.

Anagnostou alleged that Racop failed to deliver a $210,000 Batmobile replica he had ordered. Meanwhile, Racop claimed his client failed to pay and stopped communicating for months.

Deputies arrested Racop on felony charges of “theft by false pretense” and “felony diversion of construction funds.”

Sheriff Bolanos allegedly approved the raid as a favor to Anagnostou– who is one of his donors.

In a press release this week, San Mateo District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe announced the case would be better resolved in civil court, and said the County has hired an independent investigator to review the Sheriff’s handling of the raid.