Man impersonating police officer stops, handcuffs woman in Wilmington
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - A man impersonating a police officer stopped and temporarily detained a woman on Sunday afternoon, according to the Wilmington Police Department.
“Around 2:30 p.m. Sunday, February 7, Wilmington police received a report that a male subject pretending to be a police officer had stopped and detained a female victim earlier in the day. The victim told officers she was walking on Montgomery Ave. when an all-black Dodge Charger SRT with tinted windows pulled up beside her and the driver began speaking to her. He was wearing a ballistic vest with ‘POLICE’ on the front and told her he was investigating a robbery at 31st and Market St,” according to the Wilmington Police Department.
The woman refused to give the man her personal information and asked the man for his badge number, which is when things escalated. The impostor got out of the car, handcuffed her, gathered her personal information, un-cuffed her and left the area. The victim was not hurt.
“In my personal opinion, I think she’s very lucky. That could’ve easily been a kidnapping,” said WPD spokesperson Jessica Williams.”She should be really proud of her thinking in that moment because a lot of people can get nervous around someone who appears to be a police officer, and you want to follow their instructions but you also have to be cautious because things like this do happen. Our officers are aware of that and they talk about it. In lineup, they’re taught that if they’re doing a traffic stop to try and do it in a populated area and not in the middle of nowhere because people can get scared.”
Williams adds that even if an officer is in plain clothes or undercover, they must provide their ID card if someone asks.
Cameron Maxfield, a local mother, heard the story while visiting a park not far from where it happened.
”It is pretty unnerving because someone could be next,” said Maxfield. “That does give me some reservation, a little bit of fear; you never really know.”
Anyone who sees the suspect is asked to call 911 and any other information can be reported directly to the police department at (910) 343-3609 or through the Wilmington, NC PD app.
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