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Wake County Authorities Looking For 'Battery Bandit'

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Battery Bandit Suspect
WAKE COUNTY, N.C. — Investigators are searching for a man they believe is connected to eight convenience store scams across Wake County.

Surveillance video from the latest attempt at a Kangaroo convenience store off of U.S. Highway 70 shows a man investigators call the "Battery Bandit" pretending to be an undercover Drug Enforcement Agent, authorities said.

They said the suspect was trying to return $48 worth of titanium AA batteries that he claimed he no longer needed. The sheriff's department said the clerk did not believe his story and immediately called authorities.

The Wake County Sheriff's Department is looking for 41-year-old Jeffrey Brueggeman, whose last known address was in Wendell. Brueggeman was picked up in 2001 for trying to pull off the same scam, the sheriff's department said.

"He's never presented any kind of formal identification," said Maj. Johnny Jordan, of the Wake County Sheriff's Department. "It's always been word of mouth. He's always just come in and told them he was a DEA agent. Sometimes he would give a name, sometimes he wouldn't. And he would be just wanting to return batteries."

Jordan said Brueggeman drives a small yellow truck, possibly a Chevrolet, with license plate number

TTS-4444

. Jordan urges anyone with information to call the sheriff's department at

(919) 856-6800

or his or her local law enforcement agency.

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