7 Arrest Warrants Issued for Alleged Golden Valley Panhandler

For two months, Golden Valley police have been dealing with a man they say has scammed residents out of anywhere from five bucks to hundreds of dollars.  Now police say is back in Golden Valley. 

"We had a number of calls that he was going door-to-door on Thursday night," says Joanne Paul, crime analyst with the .  "But once again, calls to the police came too late for us to investigate."

Police say residents reported seeing Bell near the Minneapolis-Golden Valley border along Golden Valley Road.  Some say he knocked on their door.

"I couldn't believe it.  There he was knocking on our door," one Washburn Ave. resident, who asked to remain anonymous, told Patch on Monday.  "I shut the door on him."

"We need to hear minutes and seconds after a resident thinks they've seen (Bell)," Paul says.  "Not hours or days."

issued a crime alert about Mark Christopher Bell in early March, saying he was   It took less than 24 hours for police to get a lead from a local resident, and Bell was arrested and released on bail.

But police say Bell has eluded them ever since.  In fact, for a few weeks this month, Golden Valley police weren't receiving calls about him because

After a crime alert was issued in Minneapolis' Bryn Mawr Neighborhood about two weeks ago, Golden Valley police weren't convinced Bell had moved on for good.

"We're still telling residents to stay alert and to call police if they see Mr. Bell," Joanne Paul told Golden Valley Patch at the time.

After failing to appear in court on Wednesday, police say Mark Bell now has seven active arrest warrants against him in Golden Valley alone.

for soliciting without a permit in early March after a resident called police. The caller told police that Bell was going door-to-door saying he needed help because his car had broken down on the highway.

Police found Bell and say they disproved his story and arrested him for illegally soliciting for funds. He was booked and released, but didn't show up for his court date this week.

Police say Bell looked for opportunities to steal and often told people that he had just come from church.  He would say he needed money to get his vehicle out of impound or that his vehicle had broken down. Some people had given him cash and, in one case, someone actually drove him to a cash machine to give him money, police say.

Even with multiple police departments keeping an eye out for Bell, police say they continue to get reports that Bell's still trying to swindle people.

Police say they are relying on your help to finally get Bell off the street.  Nearly all leads in the investigation thus far have come from people calling the police.

"Don't wait several hours or days before doing it," Joanne Paul says. "Our residents have been great about calling, but they're just not doing it soon enough."

Mark Christopher Bell is known to call himself Marcus, and police say he is well-spoken and well-dressed.  Police say Bell often says he's with a local church and his explanations for needing money seem plausible to his victims.

"I never fall for this stuff," Kerri Adelmann, a St. Louis Park victim, told Patch.  "But he just seemed trustworthy.  I only lost $40, but I learned my lesson."