A 42-year-old transient who allegedly “pulled over” two women and impersonated a police officer five days before Halloween was arrested earlier this month, according to the Anaheim Police Department.
Gabriel Magna Lopez was located in his suspect vehicle and arrested without incident on Dec. 4, said Lt. Bob Dunn, the Anaheim Police spokesman, who noted the transient was booked for felony false imprisonment and misdemeanor impersonating a police officer and is being held in Orange County Jail on $25,000 bail.
But additional counts may come as police seek other possible victims of the alleged phony flatfoot.
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The women were in a vehicle heading south on Anaheim Boulevard from La Palma Avenue around 10 a.m. Oct. 26 when a dark-colored, four-door Cadillac passed them, slowed down and appeared to deliberately move to block their path, Dunn said.
The Caddy then stopped, a man got out and approached them and then he told the women he was a police officer who intended to arrest them, Dunn said.
When the women said they were going to call police to verify his status, the man ran back to his Caddy and drove off at high speeds, said Dunn, who added the victims got a license plate number that they passed along to the Anaheim Police Department.
Investigators identified Lopez as the driver of the black 1999 Cadillac four-door assigned to those plates, and he was tracked down and arrested, Dunn said. “It is believed Lopez may have done this before and there may be additional victims,” the spokesman added.
Tips, even anonymous ones, can be left with Orange County Crime Stoppers at 855.847.6227 (855-TIP-OCCS), via occrimestoppers.org or by texting to 274637 (C-R-I-M-E-S) from a cell phone. (All text messages should begin with the letters “OCCS”.)
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.