Update: More Charges For Largo's Accused Phony Cop

LARGO, FL — The Largo man arrested two times in two days in mid-March for allegedly impersonating an officer now faces three more criminal counts. Clearwater Police announced the man’s latest arrest Friday morning. By Friday afternoon, the Largo Police Department said it, too, had filed more charges against the man.

Clearwater Police say Todd Jeffrey Blumencranz, 35, was arrested Thursday night on a single count of impersonating an officer following the conclusion of an investigation into a March 17 incident involving a female motorist. Blumencranz, Clearwater Police say, pulled over the woman for alleged speeding in the area of Belcher and Nursery roads.

The woman later told real officers the car that initiated the stop was silver and had red and white lights on the mirror and dash. The man driving said he was an off-duty police officer on his way to work, the police department wrote in an email to media. Blumencranz took the woman’s license back to his car and “also pretended to communicate via an earpiece,” the email said. “He also had a clipboard with him.”

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After supposedly running the woman’s license, “the would-be officer told her he was going to let her off with a warning,” the email noted.

The victim, police say, contacted them when she arrived at work. She was able to positively identify Blumencranz from a photo pack, leading to his third arrest on the same charges, the agency’s email said.

Blumencranz was also jailed twice by Largo Police in March. The first arrest in that city occurred following a March 19 incident in which he is accused of attempting to question people about alleged auto burglaries in the apartment complex where he lives. Largo Police charged him that day with impersonating a law enforcement officer.

On March 20, Largo Police said Blumencranz tried to pull over a Ford Mustang on U.S. 19. The car’s driver slowed down, but realized the “cop” was driving a silver Nissan and not a marked cruiser. The woman in that case drove to a gas station and notified real police, the agency said.

Blumencraz was charged again following the March 20 incident and also had his vehicle impounded since it was used in the alleged crime, police said at the time.

The latest charges out of Largo stem from a March 18 incident that occurred around 7:15 p.m. March 18, Largo Police wrote in an email Friday. In that case, Blumencranz is accused of trying to stop a vehicle in the area of East Bay Drive and Belcher Road. The 27-year-old female driver told Largo police a man in a 2007 Nissan Altima with flashing lights on his dashboard tried to pull her over.

“When the victim would not pull over, Blumencranz is said to have pulled up alongside of the victim's vehicle and instructed her to pull over,” Largo Police wrote in an email to media. “The victim did not pull over, but she advised the suspect vehicle was being driven recklessly and changing speed causing her to fear the defendant might strike her with his car, which resulted in an aggravated assault charge.”

Blumencranz’s arrest for the March 18 incident occurred Thursday evening as Clearwater Police were levying their charge of impersonating an officer. Largo Police added another count of impersonation to Blumencranz’s record and a single count of aggravated assault, the agency reported.

The victim in Largo’s March 18 case took cell phone video of her encounter. That video is not being released.

Blumencranz was released from the Pinellas County Jail Friday after posting bond.

Booking photo courtesy of the Pinellas County Jail

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