Police: Man pretended to be officer, stayed at woman's house

Haha! I was perusing the Statesman once more to find an interesting article to write on and came across this gold mine... A man arrested for impersonating an officer and his story. The story was covered by Isadora Vail for the Austin American Statesman, (published online on 4/28/10) directed toward anyone who thumbs through the general weekly news section. I found it pretty entertaining.

A 57 year-old man by the name Lance Henington was arrested last week for impersonating a public servant, (which is a third-degree felony) and was jailed with a 15,000 dollar bail. Ouch. The report says he arrived by taxi at a woman's apartment in northwest Austin, as she was speaking to police about her stolen vehicle. After they left, he convinced her he was an "undercover" cop working on a larger case that might lead to the retrieval of her stolen vehicle. He stated that it was a dangerous case and that he'd need to stay with her to ensure her safety. Yikes.

One of the funniest parts of the write-up was this:

One of the neighbors had become suspicious on the legitimacy of his identity and approached him about the case, trying to get more information. He merely stated that he was working for the CIA, and was above the law. Shortly thereafter, he asked for a beer. Hahaha! He stayed with the woman for a few days last week, until she became suspicious during one of his trips to the courthouse (with her rental car, nonetheless) to work on "paperwork" for the case. She called the police department and they interviewed him upon his return...

Turns out he was never an officer, or was affiliated in any way with the department. He was a convicted felon, charged with spousal assault in 2007. Luckily no one was harmed in this man's shenanigans.