Sometimes teenagers just aren’t smart — like this 19-year-old Pennsylvania man who is in custody today after state troopers found him running a police DUI checkpoint, complete with road flares and flashing blue lights this weekend.
To make matters worse, he was drunk at the time.
Logan Douglas Shaulis parked his car sideways across Route 601 near Pittsburgh at 4 a.m. Saturday and told passing motorists he was a state trooper named Steve Rogers with the drug and alcohol division. Steve Rogers is also the name of Captain America.
When asked what he was doing, Shaulis told drivers they should have read about the checkpoint in their local paper. He was asking for a passing motorist’s driver’s license and registration with slurred speech and bloodshot eyes when the real state troopers showed up — and they weren’t happy.
That’s when he tried to hand off a BB pistol to the car’s passenger, according to the USA Today.
“I can’t get caught with this.”
The troopers found Shaulis with handcuffs and a portable scanner, along with the BB pistol.
He is now facing one felony and 15 misdemeanors .
Shaulis was charged with carrying a firearm without a license, driving under the influence of alcohol, unlawful restraint, possessing an instrument of crime, official oppression, criminal coercion, reckless endangerment, impersonating a public servant, harassment, disorderly conduct, and public drunkenness, according to the Tribune Democrat.
He is currently in Somerset County Jail pending $50,000 in bail and is due back in court June 9.
Local police say a real checkpoint would never have just one officer by himself. Sometimes as many as 18 officers can seen manning DUI checkpoints. That’s a good thing to keep in mind if you’re driving alone at night, because this isn’t the first fake checkpoint to be set up.
In November of last year, a mystery checkpoint on Interstate 78 in New Jersey was captured on dash cam, showing a man blocking the roadway with orange cones trying to get drivers to stop, according to the Inquisitr . The creepy YouTube video garnered more than 200,000 views in 36 hours and had viewers suggesting the driver was lucky to be alive.
New Jersey Police later found and arrested the two men involved in the fake checkpoint and charged them with drunk driving and hindering traffic. They said the two just ran out of gas and found an inappropriate way of asking for help.
[Photo by Joe Raedle / Getty Images]
