OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — A man from Osceola County is accused of stealing jewelry from an elderly person while pretending to be a police officer on Dec. 7.
After an investigation, deputies say they arrested and charged James Davis, 51, on Thursday with robbery, impersonating a law enforcement officer and false imprisonment.
In December, an elderly man asked Davis for help to fill his car with gas at a 7-Eleven gas station on West Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway in Kissimmee, the Osceola County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post.
After helping the elderly man, the 51-year-old told him that he was a police officer and that he looked too tired to drive, so he asked the man to park in one of the parking spots in front of the gas station, authorities say.
Davis reportedly flashed what the elderly man thought were patrol lights on the front of his car and accused him of wearing stolen jewelry. He threatened to arrest the man if he did not give all of his jewelry to him, deputies say.
"This scared the victim [elderly man], so he gave the suspect [Davis] all his jewelry," the sheriff's office wrote in the Facebook post. "Once the suspect obtained the jewelry, he took a photo of the victim's driver's license and told him he would return it to him within an hour if he could confirm it was not stolen."
Deputies say Davis never returned the man's jewelry.
With help from the public in the local area and a thorough investigation, the sheriff's office says they were able to take Davis into custody.
