- A California Highway Patrol officer arrested a man suspected of driving under the influence in an unauthorized Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department patrol vehicle on State Route 99 near Manteca, sparking a conversation about replica patrol cars and the legality of civilian vehicles resembling active law enforcement cruisers.
A California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer working a construction detail stumbled onto something that looked completely out of place late one evening: a black-and-white Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department patrol vehicle sitting along State Route 99 near Manteca, roughly 300 miles from where most people would expect to see it.
At first glance, there was little reason to believe the SUV wasn’t an authentic law enforcement vehicle. It wasn’t.
What happened next led to a traffic stop, a DUI arrest, and left plenty of Californians wondering how someone ended up driving what appeared to be a fully marked sheriff’s cruiser on a public highway…