Cop impersonator in Box Elder sought

Havre Daily News staff

Law enforcement is seeking help identifying someone who was reported to knock on a Box Elder door early Friday morning and falsely identify himself as a police officer.

“The public is encouraged to positively identify anyone at their residents prior to opening the door and allowing access,” a Friday release from the Hill County Sheriff’s Office said. “Law enforcement officers can be identified by a badge and departmental identification. Additionally, you can identify law enforcement officers by calling the law enforcement agency directly or by calling 911 to confirm the person at (your) door is indeed a genuine law enforcement officer.”

The release asks for anyone with information on Friday’s incident or any other crime to call Crimestoppers at 265-4444, the Hill County Sheriff’s Office at 265-2512 or the Havre Police Department at 265-4361.

Early Friday morning, the release said, a Box Elder resident reported an unknown man knocked on the door, identified himself as a police officer and asked the resident to open the door. The resident looked out through the door’s peephole but did not see anyone.

The resident turned on the porch light, then saw through a window a man run down down the porch steps and fled the lighted area, then heard him yelling outside the residence.

The resident called the sheriff’s office, and a deputy responded, the release said. The deputy searched the area but was not able to locate the suspect, whom the resident described as about 6 feet tall, average build, wearing a black sweatshirt, dark baseball cap and dark pants.

The deputy determined that the man knocking on the door was not a law enforcement officer.