A woman has been arrested after police in New Jersey said she made up a story about a police impersonator accosting her.
Samantha Roman, of Haddonfield, is charged with making false statements after initially telling police that a man wearing a t-shirt with the word “police” on it and driving a white van with red and blue LED waning lights pulled her over on Route 38 and tried to grab her neck, Cherry Hill Police Department spokesman Lt. John Ostermueller said.
During the course of the investigation, detectives tracked down the van the woman identified and determined that it was a federal corrections vehicle and the officers were on duty and completing a prisoner transport at the time of the reported incident, Ostermueller said.
Roman told detectives the officers had no contact with, and no traffic stop ever occurred, as she recanted her story, he added.
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It was unclear if Roman had retained an attorney who could comment on her behalf.
The New Jersey State Police had earlier reported that two women in Brick Township and Wall Township were pulled over by a police impersonator. State police have not indicated those incidents were fabricated.
The man involved in the alleged stops in Brick Township and Wall Township is described as white, 40-50 years old, with long red hair pulled back in a ponytail, a red scruffy beard and tattoos on both arms and the back of his hands. The NJSP said he was last seen wearing black BDU pants, a light blue short-sleeved bloused shirt with the word “police” on the front.
