Police Impersonator Tries, Fails to 'Confiscate' Watches at Mall

by ARLnow.com January 16, 2013 at 1:10 pm 1,451 14 Comments

The Arlington County Police Department is asking for the public’s help in identifying an alleged police impersonator.

On Thursday, Jan. 3, a man posing as a police detective entered two stores in the Pentagon City mall, flashed a badge and said he needed to seize a number of wristwatches as “evidence in a case,” according to ACPD. Store employees weren’t fooled, and they asked the man to leave the store. Then, they called the real police.

“The suspect is described as a black male, approximately 5’8” tall and 170 lbs,” according to an ACPD press release. “At the time of the incident he was wearing dark colored jeans, a gray jacket and a red and black plaid hat.”

“If anyone has information on the whereabouts of this individual, please contact Detective James Stone of the Arlington County Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division at 703.228.4245 or at [email protected] To report information anonymously, contact the Arlington County Crime Solvers at 866.411.TIPS (8477).”

Photo courtesy Arlington County Police Department

CourthouseChris

A plan this good is hatched over only the finest of crack and/or meth.
- Douglas Parker
  
  Ha!
nunya

book em Dano!
malaka

How could they fail to be taken in by the standard ACPD issue dark jeans and red and black plaid hat?
drax

Let’s play spot the typo! First one to see it gets a half FREDTERP.
- drax
  
  Looks like you win, Scott. No fair.
- WeiQiang
  
  what i don’t understand is how “seize” get to violate the i-before-e rule with impunity. is it actually pronounded, ‘sayz’? computer says no … sēz.
Douglas Parker

What kind of asshat wears a plaid hat to impersonate a cop? Did he smell like alcohol?
ArlResident

He asked for the watches behind a counter as “evidence in a case?” Looks like he tried to steal all of the puns too.
Major Pup McPuppo Jr.

now’s the time to try the trick again. since he is now under investigation for pulling a fake investigation to get some watches, the trick should work now. genius.
novasteve

Hmm, looks like I’ll need to find another mall to try my wallet inspector scam.
Wow

The quality of the criminals around here has gone to hell in a hand basket !!
R. Griffon

They’re sure to catch him with a crystal clear surveillance image like that. Why even bother installing cameras at that point?

CSI computer magic … ENHANCE!!!
- Swag
  
  From what I saw they’re stopping and questioning every skinny black guy they see.
  
  Well, maybe not *every*, but I saw cops stop, frisk, ID check and question two guys.

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