A lieutenant with the NYPD is being investigated for allowing a known cop impersonator to masquerade as an actual cop, including letting him drive a patrol car and attend precinct roll calls.
According to the Daily News, Thomas Georgevitch, who is not a cop, was allowed nearly unfettered access to the 52nd Precinct in the Bronx by an actual cop, Lieutenant Kevin Maloney.
Though Georgevitch was busted in December for keeping a collection of imitation pistols, ammo and badges, it is Maloney who is now under investigation for apparently enabling Georgevitch's bizarre cop fantasies, prompting other officers in the precinct to contact a lawyer.
"It appears that he is playing police officer and it was condoned by this lieutenant," Eric Sanders, the lawyer obtained by the police, told the tabloid. "It's alarming and it doesn't seem the police department is concerned about it."
The Internal Affairs Bureau is currently investigating claims that Georgevitch was often seen driving Maloney around in a radio car, and more stunning still, that Georgevitch was even seen driving it around unaccompanied.
Thus far, Maloney has only been issued a command discipline for allowing an "unauthorized ride-along in a department vehicle." Ride-alongs do not generally entail the guest driving the car by him or herself.
Some Real Cops were surprised to learn that Georgevitch was not one of them. Others, however, "knew him as a former employee of a police equipment store on nearby Webster Avenue."
This is not Georgevitch's first brush with pretending to be the law. He was arrested for the same offense in 1996 after calling into a radio show, identifying himself as "a security guard at a state government office" and requesting the song "Secret Agent Man."
A detective listening knew Georgevitch was wanted, and arrested him at the station.
