North Carolina sheriff’s office looks for police impostor

HICKORY, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina sheriff’s office wants the public’s help in finding a man who they accuse of impersonating a law enforcement officer and who stopped a teenager motorist.

The Catawba County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that it received a report that a teenage girl driving on a local road had been stopped on Wednesday by a man claiming to be an officer. According to the news release, the teenager asked what department the man was with and if she could see his badge.

The man let the teenager go after a brief conversation, and the girl reported the incident to a school resource officer, the news release said.

The Hickory Daily Record reported police in Hickory said a man roughly matching the description of the suspected fake officer stopped a motorist on U.S. Highway 321 in Hickory early Thursday.

Authorities said that while the man was wearing a uniform and carrying a firearm, there was no evidence he had a badge. The black SUV he was driving did not have the insignia of any law enforcement agency, though blue lights were installed in the windshield, according to the news release.