By PoliceOne Staff
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — A Florida officer’s body camera captured police interaction with a shoplifting suspect, who told officers he was a U.S. marshal.
WPLG reports that Boynton Beach police were called to a Best Buy Wednesday after an employee recognized a man who stole an iPhone X days earlier. Officers were going to issue the man, 61-year-old John O’Grady, a trespassing warning when they noticed a gun on his hip and a U.S. Marshals Service lapel pin.
Police asked O’Grady if he was an officer, to which the suspect replied that he was a “federal marshal.” Officers then asked O’Grady if he had identification and if he could provide them his supervisor’s phone number, leading O’Grady to reveal the gun on his hip “was not a real weapon.” Officers then arrested him.
“Congratulations, you just impersonated a police officer,” one officer said. “That’s a federal offense.”
It was later revealed that the weapon O’Grady had was a BB gun. Police searched the suspect’s car and found the stolen iPhone.
O’Grady’s charges include impersonating an LEO.