A Florida woman had her Dodge Charger wrapped to resemble Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) vehicles but ended up having it confiscated. She initially misled the police but later admitted her intention to mimic the police car’s appearance. Now, she’s facing a number of charges and her look-alike police car is in the impound lot.
Reports say that FHP troopers were in the middle of a completely separate traffic stop when they noticed the car. Evidently, it was eye-catching enough that they finished the stop quickly so that they could go in pursuit.
That’s not too shocking though as the car in question has an identical livery as the FHP but with the words FSO Guard on the side and a badge that doesn’t match the real FHP version. When they made contact with the driver, a 28-year-old woman, she told them that she bought the car that way.
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That might have worked in some states but in Florida, police vehicles with this color scheme don’t get sold to the public. The woman then admitted that she had the vehicle wrapped in FHP colors because she “fell in love with the color scheme.” Notably, she owns a security company which might explain why she also had a blue and white light bar installed on the roof.
Regardless of her reasoning, these actions are first-degree misdemeanors in Florida. In addition to a charge of “imitation of a Florida Highway Patrol marked unit”, she’s facing others surrounding a lack of insurance and misuse of a dealer license plate.
Interestingly, it’s plausible that the company that applied the wrap could be in the hot seat too. One part of the law stipulates that a person can’t color or “cause to be colored any motor vehicle” the same or similar color to the ones used for FHP vehicles. Evidently, the woman was initially arrested only to be then released at the stop. Her Charger was towed to the impound lot though.