A felon with road rage who allegedly impersonated an officer is behind bars thanks to some quick thinking of an area motorist.
At 12:07 p.m., on March 6, Brandon deputies spoke with an area man at the Brandon substation who stated that he had just picked his wife up from Pontiac, and that while they were traveling north on Perry Road, a vehicle started following him so closely that he couldn’t see the front of the vehicle. He said that they crossed Walton Road and the vehicle passed him along with a few other vehicles and was weaving in and out of traffic.

The area resident copied down the plate number and said that when the vehicle was stuck behind someone turning left, he pulled up next to the driver. The driver then put an oval shaped badge up against the driver’s side window. He said that based on everything that had occurred, that this person was impersonating a police officer. Then a little farther down the road, the driver again flashed a badge at him. He said he drove his wife and children home and came to the substation to make a report.
Deputies searched the license plate and pulled up a photo of a man that the complainant positively identified as the driver. Deputies contacted the driver’s parole agent, who was able to check his GPS and see that he was in the area at the time of the incident.
The man, a registered sex offender who also has had 31 felonies, was arrested.