NAUGATUCK — Police say a Thomaston man used blue and red lights in an attempt to pull over a driver who cut him off at an intersection in Naugatuck on Friday.
But the man says while he does have blue and red lights in his truck, he never attempted to pull anyone over.
Thomas Bouchard, 42, of 171 Carter Road, was charged with impersonation of a police officer. Bouchard had the lights on the dashboard of his Ford F250 pickup truck because he plows snow in the winter, he said.
He said he used the lights while backing up in an intersection at Old Waterbury Turnpike and Sheriden Drive, in the Naugatuck Industrial Park, after someone in a black car allegedly cut him off at 10 a.m. Friday.
“I used the lights to back up but then immediately turned them off,” he said. “I did not drive up the street with them on.”
Police said his vehicle had smoke coming from its tires because it was going so fast, and that cars were pulled to the side of the road in front of his truck because they thought it was a police vehicle.
Police said they pulled Bouchard’s truck to the side of the road, but Bouchard says he was already stopped when officers came up behind him. He told a reporter that he did indeed want to follow the car after it cut him off, but that he had no intention of making himself appear to be a police officer.
“I have dyed my hair and beard pink for breast cancer awareness month — who in their right mind would think I’m a police officer?” he said.
Bouchard said he got the lights last year for plowing and that he only once attempted to pull someone over — it was his friend, and he was playing a prank on him, Bouchard said.
Bouchard has no criminal convictions in Connecticut, according to online court records.
Impersonation of a police officer is a class D felony punishable by up to five years in prison. He was released on a $5,000 non-surety bond and was scheduled to appear at Waterbury Superior Court on Oct. 22.
