A few weeks ago, hubby and I took a trip to the mall. I had some birthday money to spend, and by golly, I was gonna spend it.

As we were driving around the access road, hubby commented on the car behind us. It was a police-style Crown Vic (unmarked) with lots of antennae. Hubby had a feeling the driver was either A) going to rear-end us or B) pull us over. Apparently the guy had been behind us for a mile or so and at one point was talking into a hand mic as if calling in our tag. Hubby pulled down a lane of parking spaces and stopped, but the car tooted it's air horn at us and zoomed along the access road. At that point hubby got very suspicious (most unmarkeds in our area are not the color of that car), so he pulled back out and got behind the other car. It had a vanity tag - big red flag. Unmarkeds either have generic or state tags. So we followed the car. Eventually he pulled into a lane of parking spaces, and as he was backing into a space, put on the strobes in his taillights. So hubby pulled in a few spaces down, gave me the cellphone, and jumped out to ID the driver.

Hubby pulled his badge and asked the driver for his. At which point the driver pulled out a driver's license. He admitted that what he did would give the impression that he was a police officer, so hubby grabbed the guys handcuffs (which were hanging in cop-like fashion from the spotlight handle) and hooked the guy up. Hubby had me call 911 for backup. Once hubby got things settled down, I went into the mall, skirting around the suspects car. (I'm very paranoid that way and try not to be seen when hubby pulls anyone over off-duty. Just in case they hold a grudge.)

Later, when I came back out, hubby was calling his sergeant to ask a couple of questions. When he mentioned handcuffing the guy with his own handcuffs, I could here the sergeant laughing his ass off over the phone. Anyway, hubby arrested the guy for impersonating a police officer, which is a felony. The guy had a bullet-proof vest and baton in his backseat and apparantly aspires to go to police academy. I'd say his chance at that is now nill. This guy and a friend had purchased 2 or 3 of these cars off e*BaY and seem to get off on scaring people. They picked the wrong person that day.