Teen accused of pretending to be a cop
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An unusual incident on the Milan Beltway has resulted in felony charges against a Milan, Ill., teen who allegedly tried to pull over an off-duty police officer and his wife with a strobe light.
A warrant was filed Friday for David J. Leib, 17, who is charged in Rock Island County Circuit Court with felony counts of false personation of a peace officer and unlawful use of a flashing light on a vehicle to attempt to stop another vehicle.
The incident occurred Jan. 20, and Leib was not in custody Friday.
Detective Chris Johnson of the Milan police said the teen didn’t know the off-duty officer or his wife when he turned on a flashing white light inside his 1997 Pontiac and tried to get them to stop.
The incident happened shortly after midnight. The officer and his wife had just turned south onto the beltway off Airport Road, Johnson said.
The officer knew it was not a real police officer pursuing him and called the station. They turned north at U.S. 67 and on-duty officers eventually stopped Leib, Johnson said.
“He said this was just a random mistake,” Johnson said of Leib. “He didn’t say he was targeting anyone specific.”
The strobe light was not the type of light that would be found in a real police car. The electrical wiring was not professionally done, Johnson said.
It was unusual for police to catch the person in the act before receiving reports of prior incidents, the detective added.
“I don’t know if this was a situation where he had done this to friends maybe and that’s why we hadn’t heard anything or if he had just got the lights,” Johnson said, adding he couldn’t share more of what Leib said about the case pending in court.
Johnson said the officer’s wife was frightened by the incident.
“She said if she was by herself she would have pulled over, which kind of scared her,” Johnson said. “You never know what their intent was.”
Dustin Lemmon can be contacted at (563) 383-2493 or dlemmon@qctimes.com.
IS THAT A REAL COP?
If drivers aren’t sure it’s a real police officer trying to stop them, they should try to get to a well-lit area without going too far, stay in their vehicle without putting the window down all the way and call police if they have a cell phone, Milan Police Detective Chris Johnson said.
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