Sheriff sends deputies on Batmobile arrest errand for a friend

Riddle me this, Batman: When a custom car shop in Indiana does not deliver a Batmobile replica to a customer, why would a California sheriff send four deputies cross-country to arrest the shop's owner, jail him and freeze his assets?

The answer: The guy who ordered the Batmobile is apparently a friend of the sheriff.

The district attorney and board of supervisors in San Mateo County had to solve this riddle recently when it was revealed that Sheriff Carlos Bolanos had sent deputies to a shop called Fiberglass Freaks in Logansport, Indiana, which is licensed by DC Comics to build replicas of the George Barris Batmobile from the 1960s Adam West TV show. As reported by San Francisco's KGO ABC7 and spotted by The Drive, San Mateo real-estate agent Sam Anagnostou ordered himself up one of these $210,000 crime-fighting machines. (Considering the sweet 23-window VW bus Anagnostou is using in a real estate promotional video, he has an eye for the finer things.) But he managed to forfeit his place in the line for Batmobiles. And yes, there's a line for Batmobiles.

Mark Racop, who owns Fiberglass Freaks, said he has nine Batmobiles in production. He said Anagnostou was actually first in line, but he missed a $20,000 payment. "And he disappeared on me for over eight months, almost nine months," Racop said.

When Anagnostou didn't get his Batmobile on time, the account goes, Bolanos sent four deputies to Indiana, more than 2,000 miles beyond his Gotham City on the Bay. They were traveling on the taxpayers' dime — "four round-trip plane tickets, three nights of hotels, meals, rental cars, and a lot of overtime," ABC7 said. There, they arrested Racop on California felony charges and briefly threw him in an Indiana jail.

Did Anagnostou flake? Did Racop fail to deliver? Who knows, who cares. The real question is why would the sheriff get involved, and that's the riddle that ABC7 solved. The station says Anagnostou first filed a lawsuit, which was dismissed, then tried to interest police in Indiana to no avail, which is no surprise as it sounds like a civil matter. That's when Anagnostou turned his Bat-Signal in the direction of Bolanos, whom the station says was his friend. Or as the lede on the ABC7 story says, "Holy political favors, Batman!"