Teen Impersonates Cop, Tries to Pull Over Real Cop

It didn't go very well.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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A few minutes after midnight on Sunday, a teenager in Manassas, Va., decided it would be fun to pretend to be a cop. Joshua Robert Rosene, an 18-year-old of questionable intellect, rigged his blue Pontiac G6 with flashing red and blue lights and waited for some someone to pull over in a pretend traffic stop, the Washington Post reports. Unfortunately for Rosene, the person he chose happened to be an off-duty cop. 

The officer in question thought Rosene's Pontiac looked sketchy, so he kept driving. When Rosene realized his quarry wasn't about to stop he sped off, but not before the off-duty officer called the police and reported Rosene's license plate number and location. Real, on-duty police officers eventually caught up to Rosene and the off-duty officer and charged Rosene with — you guessed it — impersonating a police officer. In a Pontiac. 

A spokesman for the Prince William County Police Department said that this was Rosene's first and only attempted traffic stop. He also said that it wasn't clear what Rosene actually planned to do once he'd pulled someone over. He's a teenage boy so he probably didn't plan that far, but his brain isn't fully developed yet, so we'll let this one go. Here's a hint, Joshua: Next time, try pranking someone who isn't law enforcement. 

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