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Police: Fake Cops Went Around Bronx With Stolen Police Badges, Gun

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police this week arrested two men who allegedly pretended to be police officers, as they drove around the Bronx with a gun and a badge that had been stolen from a retired officer in New Jersey.

A uniformed officer and lieutenant from the 43rd Precinct were heading west in a marked NYPD squad car on 233rd Street in the Bronx around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, when they spotted a man driving a gray 2010 Hyundai Elantra with New Jersey plates headed west on 233rd Street while texting on a cellphone, police said.

The officers pulled over the 25-year-old driver and found him wearing a Passaic County Sheriff's Department shield around his neck and a gun belt around his waist, police said.

When the officers asked for identification, the driver claimed to be a police officer and gave them a false name, police said.

The officers called the Passaic County Sheriff's Department, and determined that the driver was not a police officer at all, police said. His badge had actually been stolen from a real retired officer in Passaic County, police said.

They arrested the driver and took the Walther .380 semiautomatic firearm and a magazine with six bullets, which had also belonged to the retired officer, police said.

A 24-year-old passenger in the car was also wearing a badge stolen from the same retired officer, police said.

The driver, Felix Camacho of the Bronx, was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, criminal impersonation of a police officer, criminal possession of stolen property, and aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle.

The passenger, Gregory Ladson of the Bronx, was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, criminal impersonation of a police officer, criminal possession of stolen property.

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