By Kate Jacobson
The Sun Sentinel
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — John Capra was pretty surprised when he saw a $700 bill for a Nov. 6 ambulance ride in Delray Beach.
Partly because he hadn’t ridden in an ambulance, but mostly because he lives in New Jersey and wasn’t in Delray Beach that day.
On Tuesday, Capra got a bill from the Delray Beach Fire Department in the mail for an ambulance ride.
The ride, according to police, was for a man who had possibly overdosed on heroin on Nov. 6 in the 2200 block of Bloods Grove Circle. The man told first responders his name was John Capra, and gave his birthday and New Jersey address.
Except “John Capra” was really John Rannells, 23, posing as his former friend.
“He’s someone I used to associate myself with,” Capra said on Thursday.
Rannells was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail Tuesday under Capra’s name, and police also filed drug possession charges against Capra.
Until Tuesday, when the real Capra got the bill.
He said he wasn’t surprised that Rannells had done this to him though. In August, his former friend did a similar thing in Branchburg, N.J.
Capra said Rannells had access to his driver’s license when they both lived in New Jersey, and that’s where he got Capra’s identifying information.
According to the arrest report, Capra is still in a legal battle with the Branchburg Police Department trying to get things cleared up. He didn’t even realize Rannells had left New Jersey, but heard from mutual acquaintances he had moved to Delray Beach.
“I was just like, I thought maybe he was done [with drugs,]” Capra said. “I said, ‘Maybe he’ll start living a better life.’ I was dumbfounded that he was doing this in another state.”
Rannells could not be reached for comment Thursday despite phone calls.
On the bright side, Capra said, the Delray Beach Police Department has been helpful getting his name cleared and the bill resolved.
“It’s all copacetic in regards to having to pay anything,” he said. “My name is cleared from what I’ve heard, so that is nice.”
Rannells, on the other hand, is now back in jail, only this time under his real name.
In addition to drug possession charges, Rannells also faces additional charges from the situation: giving false identification to a law enforcement officer, using false identification that adversely affects another and using a person’s identification without consent, among other things.
He is being held in the Palm Beach County Jail on $8,000 bail.
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©2014 the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)