Police in the New York City suburbs has arrested a guy who was pretending to be a cop after he tried to pull over a van while pretending to be a police officer except there was reportedly one problem: the van was filled with detectives.
According to investigators, Valery Portlock, 25, turned on emergency lights and sounded an airhorn in Hicksville, a city on Long Island roughly 30 miles east of New York City, on a roadway as he tried to pull over a van. But it wasn’t just a van. The van was unmarked police car with two detectives inside.
Then the officers identified themselves and tried to approach Portlock’s vehicle when Portlock allegedly swerved into oncoming traffic and drove at 85 mph onto the Long Island Expressway before being stopped by the highway patrol.
Highway patrol officers pulled him over and arrested him without incident.
According to ABC7, Portlock was charged with criminal impersonation and reckless endangerment. Court records do not list a lawyer who could comment on his behalf.
Michael Winn, a neighbor, told News 12, ‘I’ve seen this guy installing lights into his car. Red lights, blue lights. He’s always out there futzing with his car.’
This isn’t the first incident, a similar crime has happened earlier too. Just a few months ago, a man in Florida was arrested for the same crime.
According to Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, 26-year-old Matthew Joseph Erris played cop, by turning on some red and blue lights to pull someone over.
But, the car had an undercover detective inside.
When they pulled Erris over, a pistol was found under the car’s passenger seat.
“Deputies did a REAL traffic stop on Erris,” a Facebook post from HCSO said.
“Erris is now facing a charge for impersonating a law enforcement officer.”
Social media users made fun of Erris, with one Facebook user commenting: “How stupid and unlucky do you have to be?”
Someone else wrote: “Sometimes the stupid ones catch themselves.”