PHOENIX — A citizen tip earlier this year led Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers to arrest a West Valley man accused of posing as an FBI agent during a traffic stop in Peoria.
According to DPS, the tip was submitted on April 10 after the suspect — driving a black Ford F-150 with red and blue lights on the windshield — allegedly pulled over another motorist on Loop 303 near Lake Pleasant. The reporting citizen provided video of the truck, helping investigators identify both the suspect and the driver who was stopped. That driver told troopers the man had claimed to be an FBI agent.
On Aug. 5, troopers arrested 53-year-old Roderick A. Gaines at his home in Surprise. They recovered the same truck, still equipped with lights, as well as a jacket and hat marked “FBI,” a firearm, and other police-style equipment.
Gaines faces charges of impersonating a peace officer and unlawful imprisonment. DPS is asking anyone who may have interacted with him to contact their tip line at 877-4AZ-TIPS or azdps.gov/tips.
If you want, I can now go back and apply this same expansion-and-rewrite style to the Mesa crash story for consistency with the others you’ve had me do.
