After a night off on Friday, we spent the day driving to Montreal for another show at the Academy...despite a language barrier with the sound guy, the team brought it again and entertained our Montreal Fans, along with Plushgun and The WongBoys. I was pretty wiped, and this old man fell asleep at the back of the club for a bit...but we still had a good time, all in all!
Now, to the subject of this post...Carjacked...not fun, not a good look, as they say...but as we were trying to find our hotel after the gig, a black SUV pulled up behind us, asked flashed it's lights, and used their speaker system to ask us to pull over. While there were no police markings, the it was consistent with a SWAT/SRU type truck that is commonly used...so after a brief discussion, we pulled over.
Next we were asked to exit the van, lie face down on the pavement, and put our hands behind our head...
...now, debate has occurred as to what would have happened yet. Maybe it was some jokers, just looking to pull a "harmless" prank...or maybe, it was something a bit more nefarious:
"Friday, January 30, 2009 at 11:37 a.m.
A 19-year-old man is wanted for impersonating a San Juan police officer.
Roel Garcia is accused of stopping a couple on Minnesota Road by using an unmarked car with flashing red and blue emergency lights.
Garcia was in plain clothes and allegedly told the victims he was an undercover investigator with the San Juan Police Department.
The 19-year-old man told the couple that he was on the lookout for a car full of cash.
Rolando Garcia with the San Jan Police Department said it became it obvious he was not really a police officer.
"When they said, 'We only have 10 dollars,' he grabbed it," the police spokesman said. "The victims made a comment like, 'You're a dirty officer and the suspect allegedly replied, yeah i'm a dirty officer so what!"
Police said only uniformed officers make traffic stops.
Action 4 News learned that red and blue emergency lights are actually easy to come by.
But Eddie Guerra with Communications Etc. in McAllen said he makes sure they don't end up in the wrong hands.
Guerra said he verifies that he's selling the public safety equiopment to legitimate police and firemen.
But he admits would-be criminals often offer him a pretty penny for the lights.
"I've been offered almost four to five times more than the light is worth just to purchase the lights, so they can go out in the streets and cause harm," Guerra said.
And then:"Feb. 4 - The man who has been posing as a fake police officer may be using a police scanner to listen in on the real cops trying to catch him.
The Escambia County Sheriff's Office says the fake cop tried to stop a woman early Wednesday morning. The woman was traveling on North Palafox Street near Nine Mile Road when a white Ford Crown Victoria with blue lights got behind her, said Sheriff's Public Information Officer, Sgt. Ted Roy.
The woman called 911 to check to see if a real officer was trying to pull her over, says Roy. The woman stayed on the line with dispatchers and was told a real officer was not trying to pull her over and to keep driving.
"I told my husband I wasn't going to stop unless I called and made sure somebody was stopping me," the caller told emergency dispatchers.
Deputies were about to initiate pursuit when the fake officer must have listened in on scanner traffic and turned around, Sgt. Roy said."
(Both stories found using Google.com search function)
So, keeping these things in mind, the final consensus was NOT to exit the van. At this point, I was pretty pissed...tired, cranky, alla dat. What we should have done, was called 911 to confirm whether or not it was a legitimate traffic stop.
Instead, I stick my head out the window and yell "let's see a badge first"...and was lucky I wasn't pelted with BBs or something more lethal....the SUV pulls up beside us, the passenger yells "F*ck off", and off they drove......they did circle around behind us and hit the siren again, but they grew tired of that game and took off shortly after...
...so, we lucked out...but I was pretty irked...and heard of the two stories posted above as well as some others, for pete's sake, is it really that easy to purchase that kind of equipment and not be involved in law enforcement, at least bonded??? There's other stories of worse occurences, people getting seriously hurt...something needs to be done about this...seriously...or as the Al Gore sez on South Park: "Serially!"On the way back to TO, Matisse turned me on to this really cool project the Duke's of Daville , check it out sometime, I'm spinning the Millenium Music The Prequel CD, Steady's my fav track right now. Peace!
----------------Now playing: Dukes of Daville - Steady (Mesh Up Mix)
via FoxyTunes
