Duh, Stupid

A 17-year old disgraced former Police Explorer on the Melbourne, Florida Police Department is now an object of police interest, not a protege of them.

He used his knowledge of the workings of the department to take a police cruiser, dress up as a real cop, and he even made one traffic stop. Unfortunately, a real Melbourne cop pulled over to help him, as apparently Melbourne, Florida is crime-free enough such that multiple squad cars can do one minor traffic top. The real cop then noticed the fake cop and took him in.

If he would have tried this in a busy urban department like St. Louis, he might have gotten away with the scam for longer than he did. That is because the SLPD is so busy that having more than one cruiser do a regular traffic stop is a severe waste of resources that are needed to scrape murder victims off of back alley pavements.

Either way, this young man has to be one of the more stupid human beings on Earth. Every once in awhile, I’ll hear a story of a police car or vehicle stolen. I think to myself, like, DUH, man. You actually think you’re going to be able to keep that car for any serious length of time without someone getting suspicious?

UPDATE 1:35 PM: The suspect is 17-year old Ramon Perez, Jr. of West Melbourne, Florida. He is charged with impersonating an officer, grand theft, burglary, unlawful use of a police badge and unauthorized use of a police radio frequency.

One hint that anyone that he pulled over might have had that something was amiss was all his acne scars.