For one Cherokee County man, it paid to be a cop.
That was until a store employee noticed he was only pretending to be one for extra pocket change.
Joshua Lab impersonated a cop to solicit donations from multiple shops in a strip mall on Bells Ferry Road in Acworth, according to a police report.
Lab allegeldy told shoppers he was raising money to purchase a bullet proof vest for his security job. Police say he even claimed to have been shot, had been featured in the news and that his business would not purchase him a vest.
Lab was dressed in all black with a t-shirt that said “Enforcement” on it and had a badge around his neck, according to the report.
Witnesses told Channel 2 Action News Lab told people he'd saved animals, but changed his story with each person he asked.
But he didn’t have Denise Patterson fooled.
“My previous husband was a trooper, and my boyfriend is a trooper,” she told Channel 2. “So I know a little bit more than some people would.”
Patterson works at a nail shop in the strip mall. She said she was suspicious when Lab walked into the shop.
“I just looked at him,” she said, “I looked him up and down, paid attention to what he had on. Things just didn’t add up.”
It is not known how much money he collected.
Lab is being held in the Cherokee County Jail. He is charged with impersonating an officer and theft by deception.
Police said this isn’t Lab’s first time playing cop. He was arrested in 2014 for the same thing and had an active probation violation warrant.
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