He should have jumped a drawbridge to complete the superfecta.

It's got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant, it's got cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas. What do you say, is it the new Bluesmobile or what?

I guess he figured wrong when he thought his top end was unlimited!

Driver's Darwin award winner!

I can not stop laughing.

Bravo!

I wonder how people in PMUA prison take to kids who pretend to be cops?

I wonder if he's going to enjoy impersonating somebody's Bitch in jail?

Considering that most cops that get shot, get shot pulling someone over, ending up in cuffs was a probably one of the better endings this kid could have expected.

@elhigh: If he was shot pulling someone over (LordSkippy), then it would count as a Darwin.

That is pretty damn funny.

Yeah. I got pulled over dressed as a cop when I was about that age. I was walking around at the community college asking "Where the party at?" It was the day before Halloween. The cops let me go only because they had to respond to a huge accident.

For the Darwins you have to be killed or otherwise rendered incapabale of spreading your seed (if I understand all the rules). They also do honorable mentions for people maimed, but not killed.

H must be related to this guy!
[www.wusa9.com]

Respect my Authoritah!!!!!

Kids got balls.

Gotta love the people from around my area in Illinois.

Sad thing is I did a stupidly similar thing when I was in High School. I had a red '95 Passat that I swapped out the bumper fog lamps with back-up strobes I bought at K-mart or something and bought an amber revolving light from radio shack and covered in red brake light tape. Whenever I was running late for work or just wanted to get home faster I would flick on the fog lamps and put the cherry on the dash and act like I was the fire chief so people would pull aside for me. Nevermind I was driving a 4 door german car and not the chevy suburban or whatever domestic wagon the actual fire chief drove, I just thought it was foolproof because my car was red. (I was 16 and much wiser then)
I did it for about a month or so until after I had gotten word from a friend just how stupidly illegal it was and reluctantly came to my senses and stopped doing it. I didn't disable everything though and shortly after my Mom was driving the car in a heavy fog and nearly had an epileptic seizure when she turned on the foglamps. She just didn't appreciate them as much as I did.

@teargas: Sorry, but you had me imagining you saying "Where the white women at?" or "Excuse me miss, where do the high school girls hang out around here?" HA!

forget prison, this guy deserves the death penalty.

Conjugal visits? Not that I know of. A minimum security prison is no picnic. I've got a client in there right now. He says the trick is to kick someone's ass the first day or become someone's bitch. Then everything will be alright.

@gadgetfanatic: Ummm...right.

Given that he's only 17, this is a prime example of young stupidity. If he were older (and sporting a mustache), then it gets a lot creepier.

Isn't this sort of like the dog chasing cars--when you finally pull one over, what are you going to do then? Write a fake ticket?
I'm not sure he thought this through completely.

COTD will be in here somewhere

@danio3834: I say kid's got stupidity.

Hmm, Murilee doesn't by any chance have a nephew in Moline who had asked to borrow his uncle's Crown Vic, does he...?

you guys never tried this? really??

luckily, we at least never attempted to pull over an off-duty policeman...

I'm more interested in the police-spec Cozy Coupe up there. Where was that thing when I was a kid?

Hey, if you gotta teach 'em, you gotta teach 'em young.

@rusty68: Yeah, we didn't even have lights, just a PA speaker strapped to a Jeep CJ-7. On a related note, the article never mentions what else was part of this kid's "replica" aside from the lights. Perhaps the off-duty cop was suspicious because the car was the same white 1990 Grand Prix that every 17-year-old drives in Illinois.

Motorcycle Cop: Could you take him through here a little faster than seven miles per hour, Officer...

Meoff, Jack.

@HoserDave: Fix the Cigarette lighter.

Quick Googling of the incident reveals more to the story, various papers are saying he had "pulled over the off duty officer" and had "red flashing lights installed" however local coverage makes it appear that he had flashing white strobes which the off duty cop ahead of him knew was not a police vehicle, the off duty cop called in real police who pulled him over - and in the car were the red and blue lenses for the strobes. not as funny I know, sorry, I just think about all the people with flashing lights and neon that could also be arrested in this way.. MAYBE the kid wasn't trying to pull anyone over and thought the annoying lights looked cool. Maybe he was not following them into Milan since he did live there.
Chelle

From the local paper:
"A 17-year-old Milan man is accused of trying to impersonate a police officer."
"It was just after midnight Saturday when an off duty police officer and his wife were being tailed on their way home.

"A car pulled up behind us with no headlights on but had flashing lights. He had clear flashing lights, two of them" said Nikki."(the officer's wife)

"He tailed us a good ten to fifteen minutes and followed us into Milan which is weird" said Nikki.

Nikki's husband immediately dialed 911.
Police say the cop following the couple was an impersonator. 17-year-old David Leib.

"He claimed not to try to pull them over. He admitted he had strobes but says he dropped something that activated the lights" said Detective Chris Johnson of the Milan police department.

Once he was pulled over, police found white, blue and red strobes inside and behind the grill of Leibs' car.

Riding a white ex-police BMW motorcycle, wearing a black leather jacket and a white helmet, is perfectly legal, and one very safe way to go two-wheeling here in Europe. Still can't pull people over, though.