Worker fired for using Camaro to play cop

An employee of a Ford dealership in Jacksonville, Fla., was fired after being arrested on charges that he used a police vehicle that was in for service to impersonate an officer and pull over another car.

Fernando Torres was supposed to be transporting the Chevrolet Camaro owned by the Green Cove Springs Police Department, which had taken the car to Duval Ford in Jacksonville to have police lights installed.

On Dec. 30, an officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office witnessed a man driving the yellow Camaro turn on the vehicle's police lights and pull over a car, according to a police report. The officer stopped nearby to help, but the man in the Camaro drove off without acknowledging him.

"I believed it to be suspicious for another officer not to wait and notify me that my efforts were appreciated," the officer wrote.

The officer then ran a search of the Camaro's license plate and learned the car was owned by Green Cove Springs police, leading to the eventual discovery that it had been used by a Duval Ford employee, the report said.

Torres, 42, was arrested Jan. 4 and charged with unlawful use of blue lights and false impersonation of officials, a felony. Duval Ford fired him as a result, the report said.

Duval Ford President Alex Graham said in an email to Automotive News that the dealership "fully cooperated with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office."