Wilson RodriguezLANCASTER, Pa. (WHTM) -
A 56-year-old Lancaster City man was arrested for allegedly impersonating a public servant and theft by deception, according to Lancaster police.
Police arrested Wilson Alvarez Rodriguez on multiple charges Friday.
A Pequea Township business owner reported to the Southern Regional Police Department that he felt he had been scammed out of several thousand dollars by a man impersonating a drug task force officer.
The victim related that the suspect had some type of police looking identification, drove a white unmarked Ford Crown Victoria police type car, and talked all the time about police investigations he was involved in.
The victim said that for several years Rodriguez would come to his business and request goods provided by the business and not pay for the goods. In July 2011, Rodriguez approached the business owner and his wife and said that relatives of theirs had been arrested for possessing a large amount of drugs. The suspect then advised the couple that he could get one of the relatives out of trouble if they gave him large amounts of money.
Rodriguez, after receiving several thousand dollars, approached the couple again and informed them that the remaining relative who was in jail had amassed a large amount of assets from their drug dealing, including property, cash, and vehicles. If the couple continued to give Rodriguez money, when the drug case was over he would see that the business owner and his wife would get the assets, and reported that it would be in the millions of dollars. The two business owners said they provided as much as a couple of hundred thousand dollars to Rodriguez.
A Drug Task Force spokesman said Rodriguez has nothing to do with the Drug Task Force, or any other police agency for that matter. He had no authority to request money or receive money in any matters involving law enforcement.
Anyone who may have been approached or harmed by Rodriguez is asked to contact the Lancaster County District Attorney's Drug Task Force at 717-295-3612.
Rodriguez is in Lancaster County Prison on $500,000 bail.
