“Kid Cop” Sentenced to Jail

The teen who famously dressed as Chicago Police officer when he was 14 and fooled cops into letting him patrol the streets for several hours was sentenced to prison Thursday for impersonating a cop in July.

Vincent Richardson pleaded guilty Thursday to false impersonation of a peace officer and Judge Lauren Gottainer Edidin sentenced him to 18 months in prison and issued a $454 fine, said Cook County State’s Attorney’s office spokesman Stephen Campbell.

On July 23, Richardson was arrested after he posed as an Englewood District officer wanting to buy a police uniform at VCG Uniform store, in the 5000 block of West Irving Park Road. He was charged the next day with one count of felony false personation of a peace officer.

Richardson faced the same charge three years ago at age 14 when he sauntered into the Grand Crossing District station dressed from head to toe in a regulation uniform, fooling officers into assigning him to traffic patrol -- his true identity only discovered toward the end of the shift.

Months after that ordeal, Richardson dressed up as a businessman and pretended to take a test drive at a South Side car dealership before driving away with a Lexus.

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