A teenager who made headlines four years ago for impersonating a Chicago police officer has again been arrested and charged with posing as a cop.
Vincent M. Richardson, now 19, was charged Wednesday with one count of felony false personation of a peace officer, authorities said. He was arrested a day earlier after he went into the VCG Uniform store, in the 5000 block of West Irving Park Road, and posed as an Englewood District officer wanting supplies, according to the Cook County state's attorney's office.
A salesman recognized Richardson from his other brushes with the law and called police, leading to Richardson’s arrest, another store employee said.
Unlike the first time he committed a similar offense as a 14-year-old, Richardson, of the 6300 block of South Marshfield Avenue, is now charged an adult.
In 2009, Richardson made national headlines when he sauntered into the Grand Crossing District station dressed from head to toe in a regulation uniform, fooling officers into assigning him to traffic patrol -- his true identity only discovered toward the end of the shift.
- March 2009: Fake Kid Cop Drove, Made Arrest
Then-Mayor Richard Daley fumed over the incident, calling for heads to roll.
Months after that ordeal, Richardson dressed up as a businessman and pretended to take a test drive at a South Side car dealership before driving away with a Lexus.
In 2010, Richardson was sentenced to juvenile prison for pushing his mother and stealing his uncle’s car while the older man watched television.
A year after he was charged as an adult in a gun case.
Richardson received one year in prison for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, according to court records.