TORONTO -- Ontario Provincial Police are warning the public about a man who allegedly impersonated a police officer and stopped vehicles to question drivers about whether they were “essential workers.”

The alleged incidents happened in Wellington County, west of the GTA.

OPP said that on April 14, a male impersonating a police officer stopped a motorist to ask for proof that they were an essential worker.

The driver provided him with the information and the suspect then returned to his vehicle and left the scene.

The suspect is described as a white male between 30 and 40 years old. He had short, dark hair in a brush cut, with some scruffy facial hair. He was wearing a black long-sleeve shirt and a ballistic vest with the word “POLICE” written in yellowish-orange letters across the front, but not the back.

His vehicle is described as a black four-door sedan, possibly a Ford Fusion or Ford Taurus, with a blue strobe light on the dash and a small aerial antenna on the trunk.

While a number of emergency orders are in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no rule that requires people to be essential workers in order to be out in vehicles right now.

“The OPP is not conducting random traffic stops to check motorists’ work status during the COVID-19 pandemic, nor are drivers required to prove they are an essential worker to police,” Acting Inspector Paul Richardson of the OPP’s Wellington County detachment said in a news release.

OPP also issued a reminder that those stopped or approached by an officer in plain clothes, driving an unmarked vehicle, are within their rights to ask for the officer’s identification or to request that a uniformed officer be present.

“Those individuals should also call 911 if they have reason to believe the person is not a police officer,” OPP said in their release.

The incident in question occurred prior to a mass shooting episode in Nova Scotia that saw a gunman disguised as a police officerand driving a vehicle that appeared similar to a police cruiser kill 22 people. Police have not drawn any connection between the two incidents.