We’ve heard the saying “if you can’t beat them, join them,” but one man took that idea a bit too far. A convicted felon was caught on video driving on the streets of Albuquerque in a car that resembles a regular patrol vehicle. Upon further investigation, officers then found other accessories that would make the car look like a police vehicle as well as a few objects that would be suspicious for anyone to own.
Officers find a black ski mask and a firearm in the vehicle
Officers from the Albuquerque Police Department responded to reports of a black Crown Vic, otherwise known as a Ford Crown Victoria, that had been roaming around as if it were a legitimate police car, according to a September 9 post from the department on its official Facebook page.
Video shows that the incident occurred at night with a cop driving behind the suspicious vehicle at an intersection. While police departments in Albuquerque no longer use Crown Vics on official patrols, they were only retired over the past decade, so an unmarked Crown Vic could easily be assumed to be a law enforcement vehicle.
Before pulling the car over, the officer makes a call to dispatch and refers to a report about a person in a ski mask who has been chasing people. The driver, who was not identified in the report, pulls into a parking lot and is ordered to stop the vehicle. The cop commands the man to put his hands out of the window and then walk backward with his hands up.
As the driver kneels on the ground and says that he purchased the car about a month ago, officers inspect the vehicle and they don’t like what they find. They uncover light bars on the front, a box in the middle of the dashboard that looks like a radio equipment, and a PA system. If that weren’t enough, they find a black ski mask in the backseat and loose ammunition in the door.
After the vehicle towed and searched more thoroughly under a warrant, a sawed-off shotgun was found. A picture of the firearm can be seen in a collage at the end of the video. Convicted felons are generally prohibited from owning, possessing, or transporting a firearm within ten years of completing their sentence or probation.
The post does not reveal the charges that the man faces, if any.
