Fake Cop Demands Free McDonald's

Some people will go to great lengths for a snack, or to get themselves posted on the Internet in one of those "dumb criminals" stories. Today's entrant comes from St. Petersburg, Fla., where a 33-year-old man was arrested this weekend for impersonating a police officer in order to get a free meal from McDonald's.

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Department said that Joseph Pineda told the employee on the other end of the drive-thru speaker that he was a police officer who did not have his wallet on him, and that he expected the meal to be delivered free of charge.

When he pulled around to the pick-up window, a manager was waiting for him. Pineda repeated the same story, this time saying that he didn't have his wallet because he'd just come from "a sting." He also showed the manager a gun and badge. The manager called 911.

According to the Sun Sentinel, the responding officers discovered that while badges Pineda was carrying were fake, the guns were definitely real.

He's been arrested and charged with felony impersonation of an officer and a misdemeanor charge of improper exhibition of a firearm.