A very inventive teenager from Albuquerque, New Mexico, chose to spend his nights fighting crime and probably making a few extra bucks as well, by pretending to be an officer with the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office.
He was caught last month by a real officer with the APD, but bodycam footage from the arrest has only been made public this week. In light of this incident, former APD commander Nick Bakas has a few words of advice for anyone feeling like something is not right about the officer pulling them over.
Brenden Wysynski had just pulled over an SUV, allegedly for speeding, and was talking to the driver when the real APD officer saw him. He approached him and immediately noticed he had no uniform and no gun belt, and that the lights on his car seemed like an improv. Wysynski told him he’d been working for the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office for 3 years and that he had no ID except for a star-shaped badge on his belt because he was heading down to the courthouse.
Eventually, Wysynski admitted that he was “no real cop,”CNN informs. He also claimed to have bought the badge online, changing his story later to say that he had kept it after his father, a cop, had died. He would eventually admit that the badge was bought online and that it was real, though outdated.
Wysynski has been charged with impersonating a peace officer and is due back in court at the beginning of November. Police haven’t said yet for how long he’d been prowling the streets at night, pulling drivers over and looking through their ID.
However, should you ever find yourself in such a situation, you should know the right questions to ask, Bakas tells KOAT 7 Action News.
“Who are you? What is your name? What is your badge number? You can also say, ‘I want to speak to your sergeant’,” Bakas says. “Be very cautious of security designation or general police designation.”
Drivers who are pulled over by a plainclothes in an unmarked car can also ask to wait until dispatch confirms they are legitimate, or ask to have a superior dispatched, or even to ask to drive to a station where the stop can be conducted.
“You want to pull over in a well lit area with as much activity as possible,” Bakas also advises.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News