A man pretending to be a police officer has been stopping drivers across two states.
Escambia County Sheriff’s Investigators are looking for anyone who was stopped by a man accused of impersonating a police officer along Florida’s western tip.
24-year-old Joshua Lynam was arrested last Friday, when he pulled over an Escambia County deputy who was driving an unmarked car along I-110.
The suspect not only stopped drivers in two counties in the Florida Panhandle, but crossed the state line into Alabama and reportedly made fake traffic stops there too.
He is suspected of impersonating a police officer by stopping vehicles on state roadways in Santa Rosa, Escambia and Baldwin Counties.
Investigators are now looking for anyone who may have fallen victim to this cop impersonator.
Lynam has a “Search and Rescue” sticker plastered to the back window of his pick-up truck. The gold Chevrolet 1500 king cab is also equipped with red and white emergency flashing lights, according to northescambia.com.
Lynam was driving with Florida license plate number: 869 UBN.
Police are asking for anyone who may have been stopped suspiciously in his area to call the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office at 436-9620.
As for why the suspect was doing this in the first place, authorities did not elaborate, but one social media user had some theories: “I can think of several reasons he wanted to do this: he’s a want-to-be-cop that could not become one, doing it to try to catch vulnerable young women to rape, this is a power trip, to rob people, etc.”
Lynam was released from the Escambia County Jail on a $1,000 bond.
