Reply: Bad guys pretending to be Cops

Anonymous said...
In Europe there are 60000 robbed lorries each year.

Europe will get poorer and poorer. Don't come here.

What should one do if stopped by fake police on a road?!

Man, wish I had all the answers.
I can only give you my experience and what I do.

Sometimes these guys have the uniforms, the guns, some traffic cones and signals, which can all be bought, but there’s not enough cops, or there’s no patrol car.

If the post looks suspicious, I just take off. Don’t speed away, I just pretend I’m looking somewhere else and don’t stop.
They’ll look for someone else to bother and ask for bribes, or if they want to rob you, they’ll get another victim.

This is risky because you can get shot, like it happened to a motorcycle driver that got shot in the back of the head (died). But then again, I doubt a honest cop will start shooting at you just because you were distracted and failed to see him.

I’ve talked to others and was surprised to find out that a lot of people do this as well. We’re all honest citizens, but the "fake cop stop" thing has been done a lot so we sometimes have to do this and rather fall on the side of caution.

Problem comes when they are real cops and real criminals as well, like yesterday when cops stopped 3 robbers in down town Bs As, that turned out to be Federal cops robbing a shop with their issued sidearms!!

recon said...
FerFAL, I was outside the other day trying to light a smoke, and the wind kept blowing out my BIC. One more reason to carry a Zippo.

I'm also curious about the fake police situation. In America, we have about 4 base models of vehicles used for police work, but there are a few others that are discrete and you can only tell they're cops by the flashing lights(under cover). Are there similar types of undercover vehicles in Argentina, and if so do they do traffic stops like the ones here? Thanks

Different patrol cars yes, and sometimes that can be confusing because on occasions criminals get their hands on one and rob people pretending to be cops.

My advice: If things get very bad in terms of crime in USA, then don’t stop if the traffic stop doesn’t look right, look the other way or that you ar somehow distracted while talking with a passenger.
A real cop will take your number, maybe make a call and other patrol cars will block your path ahead, but at least you avoided a potential robbery.

Again, it sucks, but you cant go through life getting our of the car and asking “ Sir? You don’t look quite like a cop, nor do your buddies, is this a setup?”
If your gut feeling and instinct tells you it’s a trap, then you’ll have to decide for yourself right there if you stop or not.

Another good way to avoid it is get close to the car in front of you, a bit to the left, using it as cover when you drive by.

A stop in a desolated road in the middle of nowhere?
Heck, why are they even stopping people there? Just turn around 180 and leave as soon as you see it.

FerFAL