On or about March 07, 2025, Anoka County Sheriff’s Deputies received a report of a stolen vehicle from Nowthen, Anoka County, MN. D. M. Stated that she had put her 2023 Chevy Suburban up for sale on Facebook Marketplace, and a man purporting to be “Robert Thomas Bey” agreed to purchase it. On or about February 22, 2025, “Bey” and another man drove to D. M.’s residence and provided her with a cashier’s check for the asking price of $53,400. D. M. Accepted the check and cashed it the following day, allowing “Bey” and his associate to leave with the vehicle.
A few days later, D. M. Was notified that the check was fraudulent and could not be honored. “Robert Thomas Bey” did not exist in any registry that Law Enforcement checked, and it is presumed that this is a fictitious name. On March 12, 2025, the vehicle was located by an automatic license plate reader alert in Michigan, near the Detroit area. Law enforcement conducted a stop and learned that two men, TERRY DARNELL GILBERT [DOB REDACTED] and KETWAIN DION MERIDITH [DOB REDACTED], had been driving the vehicle and were involved in several other interstate vehicle thefts, including thefts in Alabama, Ohio, New York, Michigan, and Kentucky.
In a Mirandized statement, Gilbert admitted to purchasing D. M.’s Chevy Suburban with a fraudulent check and stated that additional vehicles would be found in a storage unit that Gilbert and Meridith co-owned. Michigan officers obtained a search warrant and recovered four (4) stolen vehicles from the storage unit. Law enforcement also spoke with Meridith, who also admitted to purchasing the vehicle with a forged check. When asked how he did it, Meridith declined, stating that he couldn’t tell the officer “all his secrets.” Additionally, D. M. Was shown a sequential photo lineup, and positively identified both Gilbert and Meridith as the men who gave her the bad check and took her vehicle.