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Authorities say that District Heights resident Robert Muschette, Jr., 53, went through great lengths to pretend to be one of the “boys in blue” and is now facing charges after being busted posing as an actual officer.
At approximately 11:25 p.m. on Thursday, March 9, officers from the Hyattsville Police Department spotted a dark green Ford Explorer driving in the parking lot of the Mall at Prince George's with red and blue emergency lights on in the front windshield, which drew their suspicion.
Upon contact with Muschette, he initially identified himself as “DC police” but later stated he was a “special police officer” for a security agency, raising more eyebrows.
According to police, the investigation found that Muschette was an employee of a security agency and is only authorized to have yellow lights installed in his vehicle.
A loaded handgun was recovered lying on the front passenger seat in plain view, investigators noted, which he is prohibited to possess due to previous misdemeanor convictions in Maryland.
At the time he was apprehended, Muschette was in possession of:
- A police-style badge;
- Loaded handgun;
- Ballistic vest;
- Ammunition;
- Handcuffs;
- Apparel with "police" written on it;
- Red and blue emergency lights installed in his personal vehicle.
Muschette was charged with impersonating a police officer, possession of a loaded handgun a vehicle, and other offenses.
“We take our relationship with our community seriously and we are concerned that members of the community may have interacted with Muschette while he represented himself to be a police officer,” a spokesperson for the department stated.
If anyone has possibly been the victim of someone impersonating a police officer or has concerns about an interaction with someone they believed to be a police officer has been instructed to contact the Hyattsville Police Department by calling (301) 985-5060.
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