NY Man Sets Up Fake Police Station, Arrests & Interrogates People

According to Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota, Henry Terry had put a lot of effort into making his scam believable. To convince people he was a real police officer, Terry browsed catalogs and online merchants to purchase uniforms, badges, handcuffs, and other law enforcement paraphernalia that looked authentic. He even set up a car with lights and sirens, and had a fourth-floor office with a nameplate on a shelf reading "Cpl. H. Terry, Unit Supervisor."

The building directory in the hallway downstairs where Terry had his office listed the name of the office as the "New York Enforcement Asset Recovery Bureau’s District 2 Operations." He would patrol in his car and stop motorists for supposed traffic violations. Sometimes Terry would handcuff "suspects" to a chair in the office and interrogate them, after first photocopying the "suspect’s" ID, just like real policemen do.

After the 24-year-old Terry was arraigned this week on charges of grand larceny and impersonating an officer, there was little left in his office other than broken windows, a few papers on the floor, come computer discs, and a pair of black dress shoes. And, of course, the nameplate.

Terry had originally used the office for running a security company, but at some point he gave up that venture to transform himself into a self-made policeman. Investigators are unsure how long ago Terry began his alleged police impersonation scheme. "We have reason to believe the defendant has been posing as a police officer for some time," Spota said.

The grand larceny charge refers to a situation where Terry convinced the owner of an SUV to give him the vehicle to be used in an "undercover investigation." He is accused of exchanging the vehicle for a different one and $600 cash, according to Spota.

These charges are not the first against Terry; in 2002 he was arrested for reckless endangerment and sentenced to five years of probation. In May 2004 he was arrested on a charge of criminal impersonation, thereby violating his probation. He was sent to prison for the violation, but was freed again on parole in December 2004.

According to Terry’s attorney, George Dazzo, his client did not attempt to "harm or threaten" anyone, and he is pleading not guilty to the charges. But Spota said that he asked some of his victims for cash in exchange for releasing them. None of the victims were ever taken to a real police station.