A firefighter fixation - Impersonating a firefighter

An 18-year-old with a penchant for following firefighters was arrested for impersonating one at a Tracy middle school.

An 18-year-old Tracy man hanging around a middle school dance Friday was arrested on suspicion of impersonating a firefighter, a misdemeanor crime.

Police say Joshua Winfrey, 18, seemed to have a fascination with firefighters before his arrest. He’d been on several ride-alongs with firefighters, including one the day before he was arrested, said Tracy police Detective Keith Hooks.
At the Williams Middle School dance, Hooks said Winfrey wore firefighter pants, a matching jacket and a helmet with an Alameda County Fire Department nameplate on it.
At one point, he had a firefighter’s identification card, Hooks said, but he destroyed it before his arrest.
Hooks said the teen had a MySpace account where he "bragged about pulling hoses" and claimed to have a job with the Alameda department.
A phone call there went unreturned as of press time Tuesday.
Winfrey apparently attended Williams Middle School as a kid, though it’s unclear what high school he went to. But he was drawn to firefighting.
Hooks said Winfrey would hang out with firefighters, go on ride-alongs and "wear out his welcome at one station and go to another."
Hooks said that Winfrey told police he bought his firefighting gear online and that "it’s not a crime to possess it, it’s just how you use it."
But it’s a puzzle how Winfrey got hold of a nameplate from Alameda County, Hooks said, and what he was doing at the dance. "He had no legitimate business at the school," Hooks said.

Source: Written by Tracy Press - Original Tracy Press story - Tuesday, 10 June 2008 -