Wilkes-Barre Township Police arrested Angel Abreu-Nunez, 32, of Hazleton in the early hours of Saturday morning on charges of impersonating a public servant and possessing fraudulent license plates.
The arrest occurred at approximately 1:13 a.m. on Wilkes-Barre Township Boulevard after officers identified a counterfeit Pennsylvania Temporary License Plate on the vehicle he was operating.
During the traffic stop, Abreu-Nunez attempted to deceive officers by claiming he was an off-duty police officer. He presented a Municipal Police Officers’ Education and Training Commission (MPOETC) identification card for a police department in Schuylkill County. However, upon contacting the department, officers learned that Abreu-Nunez had not been employed there for about a year.
As he was taken into custody, officers discovered an additional MPOETC ID card and a police badge from another Schuylkill County police department, where he was also no longer employed. When questioned further, Abreu-Nunez was unable to name a police department where he was currently employed.
A subsequent search of his vehicle revealed multiple fraudulent Pennsylvania Temporary License Plates, which displayed indications that they had been personally manufactured by Abreu-Nunez.
Abreu-Nunez was transported to Luzerne County Correctional Facility for an overnight arraignment.
He was arraigned later Saturday morning by Magisterial District Judge Donald Whittaker and locked up in Luzerne County Prison on $50,000 straight cash bail.