Bremerton Washington Impersonator

[MTS2000des]

Anyone know about this incident last week? The subject has what appears to be an APX6000 BN and mentions "XTS batteries". Was this part of his cosplay or was he using it to monitor the local system(s). Asking for a friend.
Bremerton WA Police Impersonator at Salvation Army

 

[PACNWDude]

Wow. But there does seem to be a few LARPerators out there, with the radios being a major part of the costume. I work with a guy that takes his APX4000 and wears a yellow safety vest everywhere....(not a cop). In large supermarkets and chain stores, he says people mistake him for an employee and ask hi where things are. We all think he does this for attention.

 

[MTS2000des]

I am curious about this case. We've had a few sophisticated whackers with NAS portables confiscated during their arrests. Most are like this guy: dressed down felons posing as cops doing private security for profit. It's one thing to cosplay but another to pose for profit. This guy apparently exposed himself when he showed up the night before acting sketchy at a crime scene. His ramblings about "being a Baltimore City officer for 27 years" are interesting, along with his alleged arrest in 2015 in Washington DC for a SWAT incident. Guys like this are dangerous.

 

[EAFrizzle]

I saw one back on July 4th. Some kind of sports car with a bad widebody kit, light bar, and three antennas that even the saddest ham wouldn't use. I had no idea that there was such a thing as a VHF 2-element ⅝ wave co-linear antenna. The other two made a Comet dual-bander look small.

Saw him get out at the Walfart dressed in tacticool black with a plate carrier, but couldn't see if he had some sort of ID strip on the front. He's definitely not a real cop around here.

 

[PACNWDude]

Here in the Pacific Northwest, this is all too common......serial killers, cults, meth heads, and LARPerators. Sometimes the people meet several of these types. Then, you get the radio whackers.

Some are smart enough to get their hands on 7/800 Mhz radios, as King and Snohomish counties in Washington State went P25 Phase 2 recently, lots of Phase 1 gear is out in the market place. There have been a few that even tried to sell non-affiliate programmed radios, stolen from fire departments (APX6000 and APX8000), on auction sites.......with their stickers and labels of ownership intact (hope law enforcement jumped on those, as they were tipped off).

These people are dangerous, as many are criminals, or using the ruse to get close to victims. What I find strange, is that people do not seem to recognize the different from their local police and someone trying to look like one. Some may look convincing to some, but radio gear is one aspect I have told a few people to recognize (fire is easier, yellow radio with a fire truck underneath them). Doubt the person carrying a Baofeng, Wouxon, or Anytone radio that claims or is dressed like a first responder.

 

[MTS2000des]

This guy spent money assuming a BN 6000 was in his radio pouch. I notice it had a 700/800 whip but Bremerton appeared to be carrying VHF analog radios (one officer had a Waris RSM). So cosplay or real world? He obviously knew enough about subscriber radios as, during one of his many stall tactics, when asked for ID, told the officer "they're in a green bag next to the XTS batteries and radios" so my guess is the radios are actually used and not just for looks like DeWitte's XTS3000/5000 lookalike setup.

The take away that is concerning is this guy was earning a living posing professionally, working for a contractor (owner showed up at the arrest) and allegedly was "running people off from the 7-11". The local media has picked up the story.

The story says he "responded to a call for a garage fire" the night before the arrest. Makes one wonder what is in that, and other radios, who programmed them. Not sure about WA state law, but here in Georgia, he could be looking at computer network trespass and other related felonies. A guy like this with a long criminal history is one DAs would enjoy throwing into a frying pan and cooking them to "well done".

 

[chrismol1]

He wears a police vest while working security at salvation army? and why do impersonators always do goofy stuff like putting SWAT logos on their uniforms. Apparantly he is 1 and 1/2 hours away from his supposed jurisdiction of edmonds in this town of bremerton

Police said Scaletta-Teates had also responded to a trespassing call in Bremerton earlier in the night and acted as 'backup' to two Bremerton officers. According to charging documents, a Bremerton police officer encountered Scaletta-Teates while responding to a call of a fire in a parking garage on Sept. 4. The officer wrote in a report that Scaletta-Teates pulled up to the scene in a Ford Explorer with flashing blue lights, then identified himself as an off-duty detective from Edmonds police.

I guess standing guard and throwing on a police logo for the extra juice just wasn't enough action for this Operator. Definetly a dewitte imposter syndrome with having to tell the cops he does gang intelligence narcotics 20 year veteran who couldn't work in a jail job they offered as he needed to be out on the streets.

Is that a minitor pager on his shoulder?

 

[MTS2000des]

Is that a minitor pager on his shoulder?

Looks like a body cam.

 

[mmckenna]

I guess standing guard and throwing on a police logo for the extra juice just wasn't enough action for this Operator. Definetly a dewitte imposter syndrome with having to tell the cops he does gang intelligence narcotics 20 year veteran who couldn't work in a jail job they offered as he needed to be out on the streets.

Interesting that these guys are whacking when ICE seems to be hiring anyone with a pulse.

 

[chrismol1]

Looks like a body cam.

This on his shoulder aimed upward. Here's a static pic. Looks like a minitor 3 I wonder if it has VHF channels for police and fire or if he thinks its a prop like one of those shoulder mounted safety lights

 

[MTS2000des]

That is a Minitor. Probably claims to be a firefighter too, hence why he showed up at a garage fire.

 

[n7maq-1]

When Mike Gilbert was still up in the PNW he met up with a big time whacker that wanted to buy an XTS from Mike, IIRC the guy made the news in a bad way within a very short period. Mike was at KIRO at the time before KABC. Hopefully Mike will comment.

Jim

 

[mikegilbert]

When Mike Gilbert was still up in the PNW he met up with a big time whacker that wanted to buy an XTS from Mike, IIRC the guy made the news in a bad way within a very short period. Mike was at KIRO at the time before KABC. Hopefully Mike will comment.

Jim

Rawland Johnson was his name!

I purchased a lot of several XTS2500s from a large surplus seller (CES Electronics) on ebay, then resold them back on ebay over the following months. One of the buyers filed a chargeback saying "I can't hear anything on this radio, and I need to hear the military police!"

Ended up meeting up with him at a McDonalds down near Tacoma. Dude was wearing a bunch of casual tactical gear, some sort of badge, and a "POLICE K9" shirt. I plugged in all the conventional voice channels for the local base trunking system and gave them ridiculous names like "PD SECRET" and "SPEC OPS." The radio started carrying traffic, and he was elated. Reversed the chargeback and offered to show me his "work vehicle." It was a clapped out black Nissan Frontier decked out in cheap red/blue Galls lights, and some weird siren.

Maybe a month later, I get a call from NCIS detectives asking me about the radios I'd sold. Turns out they'd been stolen from the Marine Corps at some point. I turned over the remaining radios, and handed them the list of buyers for the rest. I emphasized with the investigators to let mr Johnson know I was just as much of a victim as he was. They reassured me.

A few days later, mr Johnson started threatening me, etc. I told him to knock it off, but he persisted. He eventually called a local news station and they made a story out of it. I ended up calling the reporter and pointed out that 1. I was the 3rd or 4th person in the chain of custody, and 2. I was just as much of a victim as mr Johnson.

It took several months to get paypal to refund the money, but I was finally made whole again.

A few months later, Rawland Johnson was arrested for police impersonation.

Police Say Fake Officer Had Cache Of Police Equipment - News Story - KIRO Seattle