Dan Sandler a homeless man known for traveling the country playing Evil Elmo a dark version of the beloved "Sesame Street" character was charged with extortion on Wednesday. Evil Elmo is accused of trying to extort $2 million from the Girl Scouts.
Evil Elmo is accused of sending harassing emails and voicemails to a supervisor at the Girl Scouts. Apparently Sandler met the supervisor while working a temp job with the organization in New York City last year. When the supervisor asked Sandler to leave her alone he began to make threats.
Evil Elmo made a name for himself in NYC when he harassed tourists and went on anti-Semitic rants. Eventually NYPD arrested the Evil Elmo. After his brush with the law in New York, Sandler took his Evil Elmo act to San Francisco.
The allegations against the Evil Elmo say he threatened to spread rumors claiming the Girl Scouts were hiding reports of sexual abuse, unless they paid him millions of dollars.
"I want a telecommute job from home of like at 150K," prosecutors say Sandler wrote in an email. "Or a two million dollar cash settlement. As you know, the newspapers like to cover my evil Elmo scenario."
Reports are saying that as the emails continued they got more and more bizarre. In one email the Christian Post says Sandler uploaded a photo of his Elmo costume stuffed into the trunk of his car and titled it "Interstate Kidnapping of Elmo."
Sandler's defense attorney says that the Evil Elmo impersonator has problems with his mental health and that none of his threats were real.
Sandler was brought back to NYC and arraigned for attempted grand larceny. He pled not guilty and bail was set at $200,000.
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