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Man charged with impersonating an officer

Police say they found police-like equipment in and on the suspect's car while responding to a call.

ST. PETERSBURG - Ralph Neuberger says he's been a body guard for Elvis and Billy Idol.

So when residents flagged him down as he drove his white Mercury Grand Marquis with dark windows, he naturally sprang into action.

Neuberger flashed his headlights, pulled over a motorist suspected of driving away after hitting a car and told him to wait for police.

Now St. Petersburg police have charged Neuberger with impersonating a police officer, a third-degree felony.

"I don't know where they got that from," he said.

Officer Mark Hughes said Neuberger's vehicle looked a lot like an unmarked squad car.

A camera was mounted on the windshield. A radar gun sat in the back seat. The turn signals were wired as red and white strobe lights.

Neuberger admitted "it was a big no-no, and he knew it," Hughes said in an arrest warrant affidavit.

Neuberger, 49, was released from the Pinellas County Jail on Thursday, six hours after his arrest.

The ordeal began March 5 when Neuberger said he was stopped by residents at 22nd Avenue N and 29th Street as he drove to work. They told him about a vehicle involved in a hit-and-run accident.

Neuberger moved behind a dark green Ford Explorer.

"I knew the guy wasn't going to be a problem," he said. "I sized him up before I did anything."

Neuberger stopped the driver and called 911, using the term "10-50," police talk for a traffic stop, arrest reports said.

Later that day, Officer Hughes responded to a call of a "suspicious car" at a gas station where Neuberger worked on Central Avenue.

Hughes peered inside and saw "a laptop computer, radar gun ... just as a police officer would have," an arrest report said.

Neuberger told police he used the car when he checked apartment parking lots but that he hadn't worked security for more than two years.

This isn't Neuberger's first brush with authority. He pleaded guilty to a grand theft charge last year. Police say he stole more than $300 while working as a supermarket cashier.

Neuberger isn't worried about the latest charge.

"I talked to some of my cop buddies and they told me, "When you go to court, tell them what it was all about.' "

- Times staff writer William R. Levesque contributed to this report.