File this under Bad Ideas. A South Florida man decided to dress up as a cop and attempt to enforce traffic rules, but the last thing the imposter expected was that the man he pulled over was undercover detective.
Needless to say 26-year-old Matthew Joseph Erris got the surprise of his life when the driver he waved over turned out to be a Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office detective, police reported.
The incident took place last week. Erris was on a Dade County road alongside his 2007 white Chevrolet Trailblazer, which had been tweaked to look like a cop car with red and blue lights attached to the grill and a law enforcement light bar added to the top of the vehicle, CNN noted.
Erris even carried realistic-looking airsoft pistol, but he could not fool the undercover detective who immediately called 911 dispatchers to report the unusual traffic stop. Erris was promptly arrested for impersonating a law enforcement officer.
A similar incident took place last month in Florida. Thomas Farmer outfitted his red truck to look like a patrol vehicle, but the first driver he attempted to pull over turned out to be a Volusia County Sheriff detective, the Miami Herald reported.
"At one point, the driver flashed a light, as if trying to conduct a traffic stop on Smith," the sheriff's office said. "As Sgt. Smith drove through [the city of] Pierson, the truck pulled beside Smith and began talking via his public address system, as if giving Smith a verbal warning."
The 64-year-old offender was charged with three additional counts of impersonating a law enforcement officer as well as on one count of stalking, according to the Miami Herald.
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