Man accused of impersonating firefighter in Lake County incident

Island Lake police say Robert Rozycki of River Grove went to great lengths to woo a woman.

Rozycki, 32, of the 3000 block of Paris Avenue, bought her roses and bragged about working for the Chicago bomb and arson squad, police say.

He picked up the 26-year-old Island Lake woman for their Saturday night date in what was likely once an undercover police car refitted with working rear and front deck lights and several antennas on the roof and trunk, police say.

Later, during a traffic stop, she learned Rozycki is not on the bomb squad. He is now in Lake County jail after being charged with impersonating a firefighter, possession of burglary tools, theft of lost or misplaced property, and minor traffic citations.

More charges could be approved, including impersonating a police officer, Island Lake Police Chief Tony Sciarrone said Thursday.

"I have never, in my 29 years of law enforcement, heard of something like this," Sciarrone said. "During the traffic stop, officers asked him if he was a police officer and he admitted, with her sitting next to him, that he wasn't on some bomb squad as he had been telling her."

Rozycki was arrested about 7 p.m. on Route 176 after his old Crown Victoria caught the attention of a couple of real cops on patrol, Sciarrone said.

Police followed Rozycki because of Chicago area reports of people posing as police officers and stopped him when the car's rear license plate came back registered to a 1998 Jeep.

While questioning Rozycki, police noticed a gun belt - called a duty rig - with a replica pellet gun in the back seat of the car, along with a protective vest bearing Chicago police and fire department patches, several radios and scanners and a regulation Chicago Police baseball hat, Sciarrone said.

Rozycki was wearing a Chicago Police baseball cap and had a radio on his belt with a shoulder microphone near his ear, Sciarrone said.

Rozycki's female passenger had a bouquet of red roses on her lap and later told police Rozycki said he worked for the bomb and arson squad, Sciarrone said. She showed police pictures of Rozycki wearing the vest and baseball hat that had been sent to her cell phone.

A search of the car produced a Maywood Police sergeant's badge, which Rozycki said he found while working as a tow-truck driver in Maywood two years ago. He told police he saw the badge on the ground after a police officer was involved in an accident and kept it, Sciarrone said.

"He does own the car, though," Sciarrone said. "We're still investigating how he came into possession of some of the equipment in the car, but he definitely owns the Crown Victoria."

Many of those items, including the vest, patches, baseball hat and gun belt, are issued only to officers and not available to the public.

Police also discovered equipment normally used in burglaries - pry bars and lock cutters - in the trunk, Sciarrone said.

Rozycki has been arrested in the past for impersonating a police officer by the Cook County sheriff's office, and has burglary charges on his criminal record.

Date: More charges could come