Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was once quite the prankster. Apparently he was also somewhat of a felon.
Reporter Joe Conason writes in an article published by The National Memo that Romney routinely impersonated police officers by sporting a cop uniform that he owned. Romney would show off his uniform, apparently a gift from his father, to friends.
One of Romney’s college friends, Robin Madden, claims the former Massachusetts governor “told us that he was using it to pull over drivers on the road.”
“He also had a red flashing light that he would attach to the top of his white Rambler,” Madden said.
“We thought it was all pretty weird,” recalled Madden’s wife, who also attended Stanford University with Romney. “We all thought, ‘Wow, that’s pretty creepy.”
In one memorable incident, reported by Boston Globe reporters Michael Kranish and Scott Helman in “The Real Romney,” other sources said that Romney schemed with high school friends to prank two girls from a nearby school. The girls and two of Romney’s friends were riding in a car on their way to a double date when Romney struck.
Romney “put a siren on top of his car and chased two of his friends who were driving around with their dates.” Romney pulled them over and “discovered” beer in the truck. Romney and his friends then got into Romney’s car and left the girls behind.
Impersonating a police officer is a felony in California and Michigan, where Romney resided during his first year of college and high school, respectively.
Spokespeople for the Romney campaign were not immediately available to comment on the veracity of these accounts.