Illinois man and registered sex offender Thomas Kronas is now facing criminal charges following his arrest on July 27 for impersonating a police officer.
Kronas is accused of conducting a fake traffic stop while driving his personally-owned vehicle that was equipped with flashing red and blue lights.
He would later learn the vehicle was driven by an off-duty police officer.
The Boone County Sheriff’s Officer said on Saturday that Kronas, 43, used a vehicle that resembled a police cruiser equipped with red and blue flashing lights, a laptop computer, a dash cam and mounted cage, used for transporting people to jail after an arrest.
The do-it-yourself police SUV also came complete with license plates to appear as if the registered sex offender supports the local police union as well as a sticker that read “Caution, K9, Stay Back.”
Somehow, Kronas managed to flee the scene of the traffic stop he conducted on an actual police officer before he could be arrested on the spot.
He was later arrested at his residence.
Authorities also seized the navy blue 2008 Chevy Tahoe owned by Kronas, which was used in his fraudulent traffic stop last week, according to WTWO.
Illinois has some of the strictest police impersonation laws in the county.
Making your vehicle appear to be a police vehicle if it’s not actually a police car is considered a Class A Misdemeanor, which carries up to 180 days in jail.
However, Kronas is charged with the Class 4 Felony requirements in Illinois and faces up to three years.
It’s not exactly clear what Kronas’ motive for pulling the off-duty officer over or if the officer was a male or female police officer.
But the registered sex offender now has even more legal problems to worry about after he was charged with impersonating a police officer, which carries up to three years in a state prison, according to Illinois law.
The Boone County Sheriff’s Office is asking other victims, even if they only think they have been pulled over by Kronas, to call Crime Stoppers at 815-547-7867 or to contact the sheriff’s department at 815-544-2144.
Kronas has since been release from the Boone County jail after posting bond, which was set at $75,000.
In 2017, we reported about a Texas man who became enraged a a Dunkin Donuts restaurant after employees refused to give him the law enforcement discount they’d been giving him for years after discovering he wasn’t really a cop.
In 2018, Kentucky cops fatally shot James DeCoursey who they say fictitiously identified himself as law enforcement after pulling over Hopkinsville police officer Phillip Meacham, who was off-duty and driving his personal vehicle while DeCoursey was driving a vehicle with flashing red and blue lights mounted on top his personal vehicle.
Kronas is registered as a sex offender after being convicted of possessing child pornography.
