Police: Law Enforcement Impostor Commandeered Boat In Old Lyme

You really have to have a few screws loose if you're impersonating a smurf with "authoritah". If you're going to impersonate a cop, at least pretend to be a real one!

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Hartford Courant: Police: Law Enforcement Impostor Commandeered Boat In Old Lyme (Aug 9 2013)

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A 46-year-old man allegedly commandeered a boat and inspected boaters' registrations in the Point O' Woods beach community while impersonating a federal official on Thursday, state police said.​

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Bruce W. Browne was later seen walking on Sea View Drive with a gun, and also police and Transportation Security Administration emblems, prompting a call to police from a concerned resident at 6:23 p.m.​

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Browne was arrested and charged with impersonating a police officer, breach of peace, interfering with a police officer and possession of a dangerous weapon in a motor vehicle. He was released on a $50,000 bond and is scheduled to appear Aug. 22 in Superior Court in New London.​

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Police said Bruce Browne was spotted driving a "police type vehicle" in the Point O' Woods neighborhood. State police said the vehicle had antennas mounted on the trunk and was equipped with "hide-a-way" lights.​

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Brown admitted to walking on Sea View Drive wearing a black gun belt with a loaded 9mm pistol in a holster, police said. He was wearing military fatigue pants and also had a black tactical bullet proof vest with "POLICE" embroidered on the front and back, as well as a silver TSA badge attached to the front of the vest, police said.​

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Troopers found three loaded 9mm handguns, a black nylon duty belt with two sets of handcuffs, an expandable baton and 12 loaded magazines containing 101 hollow point and 102 ball 9mm bullets in Browne's vehicle, police said. The items were in plain view, state police said.​

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Troopers learned that Browne had commandeered a boat earlier in the day by posing as a U.S. Coast Guard official. He stopped three vessels off the Point O' Woods shore to inspect the boaters' registrations and safety certificates, police said.​

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The Coast Guard and TSA told police Browne was not affiliated with either agency, police said. The Coast Guard said it is investigating other similar incidents.​

 

I dunno about the "impersonating a Coast Guard officer" charges, but I'm of the opinion that any charges related to impersonating a TSA employee be dropped. 1) They're not officers. 2) You'd have to be a complete friggin' idiot to impersonate an employee of the most (deservedly) hated agency in the history of the United States, making the "not guilty by reason of mental defect" defense an easy call.