Windsor police say they no longer believe three robbers who roughed up a teenage boy and took his bicycle were posing as uniformed officers.
“We’re certain it wasn’t police officers or police shirts,” said Staff Sgt. Chris Dupuis. “There are a lot of blue shirts out there.”
Police responded to a call at the corner of Drouillard and Tecumseh roads Saturday shortly after 10 p.m. A 16-year-old boy told police the robbers forced him to remove his shirt, shoved him to the ground and stole the bicycle he was riding after making him put it in the truck of their car.
The victim was riding a friend’s 10-speed down Drouillard near McDonald’s when he stopped to fix a problem with the bicycle.
Three men pulled up beside him in a dark green Chevrolet Impala. They got out of the car and one of the men started to search him.
The man realized the victim didn’t have anything in his pockets and told him to take his shirt off.
The teen told police the man then pushed him to the ground, saying that if he didn’t leave the scene in five minutes, he would be arrested. But before they let him go, the victim had to load the disassembled bike into the trunk of the Impala.
The teen also told police at the time that all three robbers were dressed in blue clothing with Windsor police insignias.
Police said Wednesday the three men did not identify themselves as police officers as was previously reported. Dupuis said the victim assumed they were officers based on the shirts they were wearing. Investigators also said the robbers were sporting some kind of insignia on their clothes, but it’s unknown exactly what it was.
One of the robbers had numbers on the front left front breast pocket of his shirt, police said, but those numbers are inconsistent with the style currently worn by Windsor officers.
Investigators added that while the shirts are similar to what Windsor Police Auxiliary, special constables and cadets wear, they are not the same shirts used by current Windsor officers.
Anyone with information about the robbery can call the Windsor police investigations branch at 519-255-6700, ext. 4830.
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