Cops: Teen set up fake DUI roadblock ... while drunk

Matthew Diebel | USA TODAY

Police are not happy with a man they say set up a drunk-driving checkpoint complete with road flares while pretending to be a Pennsylvania state trooper.

They are even unhappier because he allegedly was drunk at the time.

Troopers say 19-year-old Logan Shaulis, of Somerset, a town southeast of Pittsburgh, parked his vehicle diagonally across state Route 601 and set up road flares at about 4 a.m. Saturday.

A motorist who stopped said Shaulis claimed he was a trooper and demanded to see a driver's license, registration and insurance papers.

The motorist said Shaulis identified himself as Steve Rogers, a member of the state police drug and alcohol division, the local Johnstown Tribune Democrat newspaper reported.

When real troopers arrived, police said, Shaulis tried to hand a BB pistol to the car's passenger and said, "I can't get caught with this."

A local resident, Sue Weimer, said she knew something was wrong because of how late it was. "We saw cop cars, we saw flares, we couldn't figure out what was going on," she told local TV station WTAJ. "It was about 3 o'clock in the morning."

Another giveaway, police said, was that police never man checkpoints on their own. "You can see as many as 18 officers being required to be involved in a checkpoint," Somerset Borough Police Chief Randy Cox told WTAJ.

According to police, Shaulis had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech; he also had a pair of handcuffs and a portable scanner with him. He was charged with carrying a firearm without a license, driving under the influence of alcohol, unlawful restraint, possessing an instrument of crime, official oppression, criminal coercion, reckless endangerment, impersonating a public servant, harassment, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness.

Shaulis was arraigned by District Judge Sandra Stevanus and sent to the Somerset County Jail after failing to post $50,000 bond. He remained jailed Tuesday. Online court records don't list an attorney for him.

A preliminary hearing is set for June 9.