Bumbling Maplewood carjacker couldn’t work stolen car, left backpack behind, police say

MAPLEWOOD • Police say a Missouri man’s three-day crime spree unraveled partly because he left hotel receipts behind in a Prius he tried to carjack but couldn’t figure out how to drive.

Police arrested Charles Clifford Ackerman, 30, in Creve Coeur on Friday. Someone there had seen a flyer put out by Maplewood police identifying Ackerman as a suspect in a string of crimes there. His bail in those crimes was set at $100,000.

He was also being held Monday in lieu of $100,000 bail for a bank robbery in Fenton. More charges are expected against Ackerman, who is from Cape Girardeau, Mo., but has family in this area.

The crime spree began about 4:30 p.m., when a woman waiting for a ride from a co-worker in the 2800 block of Sutton Boulevard was approached by a gunman who demanded her car keys. She told him she didn’t have a car.

The gunman, since identified as Ackerman, wandered to a yoga studio parking lot around the corner. There, he approached a woman who was sitting in her car, police say. He asked to use her phone. She told him he could use the phone in the studio. When the woman got out of her car, the man pulled a gun and demanded her car keys.

He followed her into the yoga studio, where she handed over the keys. He tried to drive off in the car, a Prius, but he was unfamiliar with that type of vehicle and couldn’t figure out how to operate it, police say.

He got out of the Prius but left his backpack behind, police say. Hotel receipts in the backpack helped police learn about Ackerman.

He then demanded keys from another woman, police say. She complied, but he wasn’t able to find her car on the lot. She was too frightened to speak when he asked where the car was.

Those crimes happened over a 10-minute period.

“He was desperate to get out of the area,” said Detective David Brown.

On June 7, Ackerman allegedly robbed Reliance Bank, 1000 South Highway Drive in Fenton. Court records say he pointed a gun at a teller and ran off with about $3,000 in cash.

For the bank robbery, St. Louis County prosecutors on Saturday charged him with first-degree robbery and armed criminal action. For the crimes in Maplewood, prosecutors on Saturday charged him with three counts of first-degree robbery, one count of attempted first-degree robbery, one count of first-degree burglary and four counts of armed criminal action.

Police haven’t recovered the gun Ackerman allegedly used in the crimes.

Meanwhile, police in Maplewood say Ackerman is not responsible for another carjacking June 4. It happened in the 7800 block of Gayola Place. A woman was getting out of her vehicle with her two young children. She saw a man hop out of a blue sedan, possibly a Cavalier, that had been driving on the block. He approached the woman, pulled a handgun and demanded her car keys. She gave him the keys, and he drove away in her 2009 blue Honda Pilot.