Teh One Who Knocks
11-19-2012, 11:59 AM
By Jennifer Delgado - Chicago Tribune reporter
A Chicago man allegedly posed as a police officer to help block traffic during a funeral procession last week but was caught in the lie when real Chicago police approached with questions, Cook County prosecutors said Saturday.
Police stopped at the intersection of 119th Street and Kedzie Avenue in Merrionette Park on Nov. 16 when they learned a vehicle was blocking traffic on the busy thoroughfare, prosecutors said. Just after they arrived, Marques Perkins Brown, 30, allegedly showed up to vouch for the car.
"I'm a police officer, I'm on the job (and) that vehicle is with us in the procession," Perkins Brown told officers while raising his right hand to show a Chicago Police star, according to a police report.
He then jumped in his car and drove off, but authorities didn't buy the story. Police said they stopped him a block away, asking for his Chicago Police identification card and the name of his unit.
Brown, of the 1000 block of West 109th Street, was arrested when he couldn't answer their questions. He later admitted he found the star in a gym bag in Oak Lawn about a month ago, prosecutors said.
Inside his car, officers discovered a set of handcuffs, a police star holder, a Chicago Police Duty baseball hat, a black leather handgun holster and three active Fraternal Order of Police member stickers, according to a police report.
Brown was charged with false impersonation of a police officer and public safety organization as well as obstruction of traffic by a motorist and operating a motor vehicle without insurance. A judge ordered him held in lieu of $10,000 bail.
A Chicago man allegedly posed as a police officer to help block traffic during a funeral procession last week but was caught in the lie when real Chicago police approached with questions, Cook County prosecutors said Saturday.
Police stopped at the intersection of 119th Street and Kedzie Avenue in Merrionette Park on Nov. 16 when they learned a vehicle was blocking traffic on the busy thoroughfare, prosecutors said. Just after they arrived, Marques Perkins Brown, 30, allegedly showed up to vouch for the car.
"I'm a police officer, I'm on the job (and) that vehicle is with us in the procession," Perkins Brown told officers while raising his right hand to show a Chicago Police star, according to a police report.
He then jumped in his car and drove off, but authorities didn't buy the story. Police said they stopped him a block away, asking for his Chicago Police identification card and the name of his unit.
Brown, of the 1000 block of West 109th Street, was arrested when he couldn't answer their questions. He later admitted he found the star in a gym bag in Oak Lawn about a month ago, prosecutors said.
Inside his car, officers discovered a set of handcuffs, a police star holder, a Chicago Police Duty baseball hat, a black leather handgun holster and three active Fraternal Order of Police member stickers, according to a police report.
Brown was charged with false impersonation of a police officer and public safety organization as well as obstruction of traffic by a motorist and operating a motor vehicle without insurance. A judge ordered him held in lieu of $10,000 bail.