Photo by Bsivad

Impersonating a police officer seems like the sweetest scam, doesn’t it? Just attach some surplus emergency lights to your vehicle, affect a surly attitude and go to work. People are unsuspecting. If they think you’re a cop, they’ll probably fork over their cash when you pull them over and claim they were violating traffic laws. Easy money!

Unless, of course, you happen to pull over an actual cop. And that’s exactly what happened Wednesday in Upper Marlboro, Md., when a man claiming to be a police officer pulled over an off-duty Prince George’s Police officer.

Anthony Kenneth Mastrogiovanni was driving his white pickup truck about 4 p.m. on Wednesday when he attempted to conduct a traffic stop on a police officer who was driving his personal vehicle, police said. Mastrogiovanni, 29, identified himself as a military police officer from Louisiana and told the actual officer, who is based in Capitol Heights, that he had been speeding.

Mastrogiovanni (Via Prince George’s Police Department)

And here’s where Mastrogiovanni’s scam died. The real cop told Mastrogiovanni that if he was a military police officer from the bayou, then he had no jurisdiction in Maryland to begin with. Also, it’s illegal for civilians in Maryland to have red-and-blue emergency equipment affixed to their vehicles.

Mastrogiovanni drove off, at which point the actual police officer alerted his on-duty colleagues, who caught up with the impostor and arrested him, real police said.

Fun while it lasted for Mastrogiovanni, who was charged with impersonating a police officer and then released on his recognizance, police said.