Police: Bogus ‘officer’ confined teens

WINCHESTER – A Winchester man is accused of holding four teenagers against their will while posing as a police officer.

Kory William Tracy, 40, 613 E. Randolph County Road 400-S, was charged Wednesday with impersonation of a public servant and four counts of criminal confinement.

According to a Randolph County Sheriff’s Department report, four teenagers were on their way home from a “Sweetheart Dance” in Winchester shortly after midnight on Feb. 8 when they parked in the lot at LT Truck Sales, 8131 U.S. 36, Modoc, to allow their sleepy driver to “get a quick nap of about 10 to 15 minutes.”

The teens said a man later identified as Tracy approached the parked car, a handgun “drawn at his side,” told them they were on private property and ordered them to remain there “and wait for (police).”

A sheriff’s deputy sent to the scene wrote that Tracy told him the teenagers’ story “didn’t add up for him” and that he believed the youths were “acting suspicious.”

Another deputy reported Tracy told him he was a reserve officer for the Muncie Police Department and also a member of the MPD SWAT team, but said he had left his police credentials at home.

Muncie police officials said Tracy was not affiliated with their department. Dispatchers also reported when Tracy called 911 to ask that deputies be sent to Modoc, he apparently referred to his “badge number.”

The Winchester man was wearing a long-sleeve shirt with a sewn-on badge and patches on each arm that carried the name of a private security firm, the reports said.

Tracy was arrested that night on a preliminary charge of impersonation of a public servant. His loaded .22-caliber handgun was also seized as evidence.

He was later released from the Randolph County jail after posting a $5,000 bond.

The five formal charges filed by Randolph County Prosecutor David Daly’s office on Wednesday are all Level 6 felonies, carrying maximum 30-month prison terms. An affidavit adds that the juveniles in the parked vehicle had committed no crimes when he approached and detained them.

An initial hearing is set March 6 in Randolph Superior Court.

Tracy was convicted of disorderly conduct in the same court in 1999.

Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. You can also follow him on Twitter @DouglasWalkerSP.