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A 28-year-old Alcoa man was charged with criminal impersonation of a police officer when officers spotted the man driving around with multiple strobe lights on his vehicle Thursday night.

Alcoa Police Officer Dustin Cook said he and Officer Mike Devore noticed the vehicle at about 11:45 p.m. on Louisville Road. The 2003 silver Dodge Ram 4-door pickup was displaying several strobe lights.

"I looked up and I saw the lights going," Cook said.

Cook said the the truck had strobe tail lights, reverse lights and LED lights on the tailgate.

The officers first thought the vehicle may belong to someone with the 5th Judicical Drug Task Force, but then they saw an unknown man get out of the vehicle at Wal-Mart, 1030 Hunters Crossing Drive, Alcoa.

The suspicious truck was parked beside another older model pickup truck in the parking lot. Upon approaching the driver of the Dodge Ram, he said he was helping three women who were occupying the other truck.

Cook said that when the man was asked about the strobe lights, he said he worked for a construction company. He gave officers verbal consent to search his vehicle, where they found switches to work the lights and discovered strobe head lights and wig-wag lights.

There were also amber LED lights in the grill and on the running boards of the truck. Cook said there was a "siren box" in the truck, which makes all of the same siren sounds that police cruisers make.

The man was wearing a shirt with a gold 5-point star stamp on it that said "Tennessee Sheriff's Association."

The three females told Devore that they encountered the man when they had car trouble.

"They were traveling southbound on Alcoa Highway when their power steering belt broke," Cook said.

The female driver said she lost control of her vehicle, thought she hit the Dodge Ram, pulled over and the Dodge Ram pulled up behind her. The driver of the truck that displayed the flashing strobe lights asked the women if he could help them. The females reported that they asked him if he was a police officer.

"He never answered, he just smiled at them," Cook said.

The women also said that the man "kept trying to persuade them to get out" of their vehicle, but they refused. He then followed them from the 129 bypass to Wal-Mart.

Officers arrested the driver of the Dodge Ram, later identified to be Jose Ruben Gonzalez, 28, Lindsey Street, Alcoa. He was charged with criminal impersonation of a police officer and was being held in lieu of a $1,000 bond pending a Sept. 29 hearing in Blount County General Sessions Court.

Officer obtained consent to search Gonzalez's residence Friday, where they found additional possible evidence.

Anyone with information on similar encounters should call the Alcoa Police Department 24-hour crime hot line at 380-4715.

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