Extortion and Impersonating a Police Officer
My question involves civil rights in the State of: Michigan. Metro Detroit Area
Hello everyone at expert law. I'm not sure if this is a civil rights issue (I am quite new here) but some guy claimed he was a police officer part time at a store. My brother told me a disturbing story today about his friends in a video game store. This story may be kind of long but i want to be as specific as possible. 3 of our friends Ryan, Adam, and Adrian walk in to a video game store to look around. They are good guys(early 20's), not looking for any kind of trouble, i know them very well.
As they are walking Adam sees a phone lying on a counter in the middle of the store, not near any cashiers or employees. They walk around a bit and see nobody has come to claim it. Adam goes to pick it up to try and find the owner. Nobody in the store claims it. Next he takes it outside to see if anyone is out there (not the smartest idea in the world) Then somebody starts calling the phone and Adam answers. It is the owner of the phone who is also the owner of the video game store. Adam tells the man he has the phone and will bring it right back and the guy seems pretty nice about it. But when they get in the store the man is in police garb and says he caught them on tape stealing his phone and if they didn't give him $75 tomorrow he is pressing charges. Then he asked for all their IDs (while making sure his gun was in plain view).
So they left and do not plan on going back. They also called the police and they told my friends not to go back and pay the man. I decided to do some research on his store and a lady made a claim saying that he was scamming teenage boys by offering them jobs and firing them 2 weeks later with no pay(that is the tl;dr version). When she made this claim he took her to court and she had to make a formal apology on social media. I messaged her asking for details.
My questions are:
1. If he is a cop and goes through with this, do they have a chance?
2. If he's not a cop what should they do?
3. Could they use that lady to help my friends in the event that questions 1 or 2 come to fruition?
tl;dr
Prick poses as cop at video game store extorting people for money? or prick is a real cop extotring people for money
I know the mans real name and the stores name but i don't want to post it in fear of having to apologize
Re: Police Extortion/Impersonating a Police Officer Would Appreciate Advice
Pretty much a certainty that it wasn’t a real cop. They ought to make a formal complaint with the police department about it and that’s about all they can do.
Re: Police Extortion/Impersonating a Police Officer Would Appreciate Advice
The story just seems so ridiculous i'm afraid the police wont believe them. This guy is an idiot, who is dumb enough to do that at the store they own?
Also thank you very much for the reply.
Re: Police Extortion/Impersonating a Police Officer Would Appreciate Advice
What did the police already say other than "don't pay him?"
And the police deal with stories that seem too ridiculous to be true every single day. Truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction. If it happened as you say it did, they should be making a formal report.
Re: Police Extortion/Impersonating a Police Officer Would Appreciate Advice
Apparently that is all they said on the phone. All of my dealing with police in this area have been pretty much the same. They usually don't do anything. The few times I've dealt with them have been pretty underwhelming, they don't seem to care unless something happens in front of their eyes. I advised my friends to go to the police station ASAP so he doesn't take advantage of anyone else despite the way the police force is.
Re: Police Extortion/Impersonating a Police Officer Would Appreciate Advice
I would head to the station and speak to someone in person.
Impersonating a police officer is an extreme offense. Maybe they had doubts because you called them? Show you're serious. If your story is true, and you have witnesses, they will file a report and investigate.