Two charged in fake police stops in South Jersey

🚨 Officials said the two men made multiple fake stops during the end of September

🚨 They showed a gun during some of the stops, according to officials

🚨 A stolen credit card helped identify the suspects which led to their arrests

Two men are charged with posing as fake cops and stopping people throughout South Jersey.

Camden County Prosecutor Grace C. MacAulay said Shanndoah Gray, 51, of Lindenwold, and Michael Ficara, 39, of Mount Royal made several phony stops in September in Deptford, Gloucester Township, Lindenwold, Washington Township, and Winslow.

Gray and Ficara stopped a vehicle on Little Gloucester Road in Gloucester Township around 9 p.m. on Sept. 19 and identified themselves as police, according to the prosecutor. They then grabbed the driver by the shirt and stole cash.

In another stop on Sept. 30, two men reported two “officers” approached them while they walked on the 700 block of East Elm Avenue of Lindenwold at approximately 9:45 p.m. The men searched them and stole money. When one of the men confronted the pair, one of them showed a small handgun.

Gray and Ficara then ran off to a red Ford sedan with a Pennsylvania plate and an "emergency light" on top, grabbed a man by the shirt and stole cash, according to officials. Investigators later learned that Ficara owns a red Ford Taurus.

Stolen credit card helps ID suspects

Officials said the pair also burglarized an unoccupied vehicle at the Kohl's in Winslow and stole a wallet with credit cards inside. MacAulay said that when they tried to use one of the cards at a grocery store in Washington Township, their identities were confirmed.

Gray was arrested in Lindenwold on Wednesday by the U.S. Marshals Service New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force. Ficara is currently in custody in Salem County Jail on unrelated charges.

Both face a slew of charges from each town including burglary, robbery, impersonating a law enforcement office and weapons charges.

MacAulay asked anyone who may have had contact with Ficara and Gray to call the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit at 856-225-5127 and their local police department.

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