Florida man pretending to be police pulls over real police, ends badly, claim cops

Questions

1. Was the off duty officer, in fact, speeding?

2. Was Hastings sober?

3. Does Hastings get time off his sentence for not being very good at impersonating an officer?

We have a serious problem of ne'er-do-wells impersonating cops in South Africa.

Chris Evans

Reminds me of the time Chris Evans pulled over a police car. The officer forgot he had left his blue lights on.

Summer silly season.

Similar report from Upland, California on June 19th.

Known colloquially as "wannbees", these sad losers apparently are on the uptick nationwide ... For whatever reason(s) it seems to run in cycles, so I guess this too shall pass.

Fake Pigs (Facon)

I remember four or five cases of fake cops in Scotland, the most recent in August 2018. Some of them were Walts (Walter Mitty), some scammers, but some were rapists/murderers.

A healthy distrust for authority is advisable. One woman who was pulled over by a sole fake cop late at night had the common-sense and awareness to ignore him and instead drove to a police station. [Not this case but similar]

https://www.scotland.police.uk/whats-happening/news/2018/august/warning-over-men-impersonating-officers-in-cowdenbeath

Sergeant Paul Cochrane said, "The woman did the absolutely right thing in this instance by removing herself from these men and contacting police to report her concerns.

"I want to stress that if you are stopped by genuine police officers at any time, they will produce identification and explain fully the reason for you being stopped.

"Members of the public should remain vigilant and should they also be stopped in a similar manner by anyone claiming to be an officer, but not in uniform, or in possession of appropriate ID then leave the area immediately before reporting the matter to police immediately.

F_the_CIA

This is unrelated to the article and only tangentially related to my previous comment of distrust authority. It amuses me though so maybe it'll amuse you.

I was a teenager at an American blue-chip in "Silicon Glen" in the early eighties. I'd designed (with a great deal of help from my mentors) a high end computer board. A high speed relay board on the VMEbus spec. It sold for thousands of pounds, but it was our most basic product. Basically it opened 16 switches at high speed, big deal, but I was proud of it and my name was all over it.

A few months later I got a call at my desk from the CIA telling me it was breaching US sanctions because it was being exported to Hungary and I'd be arrested if that didn't stop because the relays were restricted technology. Cold war and all that. I called BS, said, "Fuck off and die, you are not the CIA" and slammed the phone down. I was sure it was a prank played by my fellow apprentices using one of their Tucson colleagues.

A couple of minutes later the same American phoned me up with the same spiel and I responded, "Aye right, do you know Hungary has developed it's own super-computer, why would they possibly be interested in these cheap relays?" I got that info from reading the precursor to this mag, Electronics Weekly or something similar - the BOFH is older than most here know. The CIA guy said, "Don't hang up again, can you give me your managers extension?"

Turned out it was the CIA.

Wasn't the worst mistake I made with that board. I did it all, including the CAD, and the CAD component was inverted so the prototype had to have it's relays fitted on the rear side. Plus when I was doing testing it burst on fire, well smoking at least, because I was pumping ten times more current through it than it was designed to take. Faulty multimeter, and I didn't think to use another multimeter because mine had just been calibrated. I burst into a boardroom meeting to warn them my product was dangerous, and it wasn't.

Long story......cops hate impersonators

To set the scene this story is set in the UK and a very long time ago.

I knew a guy who sold nothing more dangerous than weed or hash.

His apartment was above a shop so when you entered the front door there were stairs up to his space.

Someone leaving had deliberately left the front door open and soon there were guys pretending to be police officers with a handgun (later found to be a starting pistol) and a search warrant (later found to be stolen). They took all the money and drugs and promptly left the building! Apparently this gang had been targeting dealers but no-one had reported it. My "pal" was a man of principal, quite a philosopher and also a Buddhist so he rang the cops to complain. Well it turns out that the police hate anyone impersonating them so they gave my "pal" immunity and protection. I won't reveal the whole story but this snippet is funny. My "pal" became friendly with one of the detectives who would come around his house for a coffee. My "pal" had told him that "Any day that you want to bust me I will have some hash here". So over coffee $name opens his tobacco tin to roll a cigarette but inside is also a lump of hash. The detective says "$name, could you please put the lid back on your tin". LOL

Anon for obvious reasons

Long story......cops hate impersonators (2)

When you do lots of weekly commuting, you get to hear a few interesting stories from the hotel staff...

One time the plod had come round to the hotel mid-afternoon to book one of the function rooms for their annual shindig. The receptionist called the events person who was at the other end of the hotel so she asked the receptionist to show plod through to the function room and she'd meet them there. So far so normal but one of the police absentmindedly leaves his radio on the desk, which is now unattended. Inevitably a cleaner comes down looking for the manager, finds no one, and picks up the radio thinking it's one of the hotel's walkie-talkies. Cue amusing conversation where confused cleaner can't understand why the people on the other end of the walkie-talkie keep demanding to know where she is and why they don't know where the reception desk is.

Apparently a police car arrived very quickly. :-)

When do the "Florida Man" jokes start?

Florida Man is slipping

I must say that in the ongoing adventures of Florida Man, this was pretty lame.

No explosives or firearms, no dangerous wildlife, no injuries, nobody had to call an ambulance, the fire department, or even the state conservation officers.

C'mon Florida Man, you can do better!

Legging it

A long time ago we were returning from an evening out when I could hear a siren (it might have been a bell) nearby. A glance in the rear view mirror revealed it to be the car behind as is started to flash the headlamps (no blue lights). I could see from the silhouettes of the driver and passenger that they had long hair, didn't look like cops, and the car wasn't a marked police car. I felt somewhat in fear for our safety so put my foot down and accelerated away. About a mile or so later we ran into a police road block! "why didn't you stop?" said the uniformed officer. I explained my fear of what I thought were villains in the unmarked car and how would I know they were cops. He stepped away, muttered something to his colleagues and after a quick breath test we were on our way. No idea what that was about; perhaps they were looking for a particular face.

A Policeman's lot is not a happy one: "The Pirates of Penzance" Gilbert & Sullivan.

I recall, something like 60+ years ago, a UK man who'd fitted up his car with a bell [well I did mention it was a looong time ago] - Belled a car in front as it was driving through Thornton Heath in South London.

His choice of "prey" wasn't very good - for he'd chosen to "gong" an undercover Police car.

I don't think it turned out very well for him!!

Here in Hong Kong, during recent weeks, the "Fuzz" have been accused of failing to display their rank & numbers whilst beating up marchers against the Hong Kong Government's attempt to force extradition laws to fling ALLEGED criminals back to Communist China.

It was put about by the "Fuzz" that Warrant cards need only be carried by one member of the squad tasked with beating up violent (& not so violent protestors) on the streets.

Needless to say, I rather chuckled when the protestors surrounded the Police HQ in Wanchai all day and into the early hours of the next day - so it was effectively "sealed off" !!

I think I can say that any "goodwill" towards this in-Disciplined Service has rather evaporated if one questioned the majority of the Hong Kongers - apart from the Commie Running Dogs that infest HK.