Police: Panhandler claimed link to slain family
St. Paul police say a panhandler claimed he was a relative of a slain Minnesota family as he asked passers-by for money.
Police were called last Friday about an "aggressive panhandler." As the 50-year-old man was put into a squad car, a woman approached and said the man had told her his sister was killed in Vadnais Heights, along with his niece and nephew.
Police spokesman Andy Skoogman tells the St. Paul Pioneer Press the woman told police the man was "very emotional" and asked for money for funeral costs.
The police report doesn't say whether she believed him or gave him money.
Last week, police found the bodies of a woman and two of her children in their Vadnais Heights apartment. The woman's husband is charged in their deaths.
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Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press (Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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