Wednesday, August 06, 2008

"Man Charged With Driving Fake Cop Car"

The Blues Brothers notwithstanding, buying a used car that looks like a cop car might not be a good idea. You could get in a little trouble.

KSAT-12 reports on the fake cop car:

SAN ANTONIO -- When a Bexar County sheriff's deputy noticed a non-descript police car driving down the highway, something wasn't right.

It looked like a police car, it had a unit number and was a Ford Crown Victoria, said Deputy Bill Lohrke, but the driver wasn't a peace officer.

"He wasn't trying to stop any cars, but he was just driving down the roadway and has police all over his vehicle," he said.

The driver claimed his boss purchased the vehicle at an auction and was using it at a hotel for security, but driving the car on the highway is against the law, and the driver was charged with two crimes, Lohrke said.


The charges are "false identification of a peace officer and misrepresentation of property." I'm no lawyer, but I'm not sure if these charges are going to stick. As far as I know, there's nothing wrong with having an unconventional looking car. Is there?

4 comments:

Dave said...

I thought that before the police sold those vehicles to auction, they were supposed to decommission them - like removing the stickers/unit numbers. I guess not.

Albatross said...

Of course, I guess the stickers could have been added later. Perhaps the car was never actually a cop car and it was just made up to look like one. Whatever the case, the deputy sure didn't take too kindly to that vehicle.

[Let's hope the car doesn't use its police camouflage to sneak up on unsuspecting houses!]

Kels said...

I thought the same thing as Dave... if it was in fact bought through auction, then I don't think the charges should stick... all of that should've been taken care of before the vehicle was released for public sale.

I used to drive a silver mercury grand marquis... about the time that all the stealth cars started popping up more. I live in Windcrest, and that is the model car they use here for both their police and stealth cars... I used to love seeing people hit their brakes at night time when they weren't sure if I was a cop or not. lol :) Ah, memories!

Albatross said...

Heh heh heh. I used to have a Ford Fairmont painted sheriff's-deputy beige. Sometimes I'd get the same reaction with people at night. :-D