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Art Mann
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What if he's not entitled to wear that uniform?
By Jane Sims, The London Free Press Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Maybe it was the cruiser, the badge, the handcuffs or the gun.
Whatever it was, Perry Lambert believed life as a police officer held the key to a woman’s desire.
His fixation of all things police was already firmly in place. He had a collection of shoulder flashes from London, St. Thomas and the OPP. He kept a couple of OPP hats.
And he’d lifted confidential police information for training manuals off personal laptops taken in for repairs where he worked.
Armed with all that gear, the married father of three set up a dating profile on the website Plenty of Fish and started looking for women who love a man in uniform.
On Tuesday, Lambert, 45, of St. Thomas, pleaded guilty to impersonating a police officer and possession of property obtained by crime under $5,000, after he was busted by a woman he had chased.
He was nabbed in a police sting after Lambert left his two-year-old alone at home, thinking he was going to meet a willing woman.
“I’m really ashamed at what has occurred,” Lambert told Ontario Court Justice John Skowronski. He said he has put together a support group of family and friends who have stood by him.
Skowronski, who sentenced Lambert to three years’ probation, said Lambert needs counselling.
“You’re not a police officer,” Skowronski told him. “It’s one tough job and the people in it are very dedicated to serve in our community.”
Lambert’s behaviour was certainly unbecoming of a police officer.
Assistant Crown attorney Gideon Bloch told the judge Lambert signed onto Plenty of Fish as ‘ForeverFred’ and began chatting with a woman from Stratford last November.
He showed the woman a photograph of two London police officers standing by a cruiser and identified himself as the officer with dark hair standing on the left.
The officer in the photo was really a 10-year veteran of the London force who didn’t know Lambert.
Lambert asked the woman for her phone number and address. She said she would rather meet him in person.
Lambert said he had a gun and handcuffs and asked if she wanted him to bring them along. He also made sexual suggestions.
He told the woman he had searched her on his police computer. He told her he knew how many children she had and gave her address.
That was too creepy for the woman. She called police.
READ MORE HERE
Full disclosure: sorry folks that's not the picture from the news story ... but the one in the paper is way too boring
