FARMVILLE – A suspect under arrest in connection with a series of burglaries or attempted burglaries in the Central Virginia area was in possession of a Farmville police badge, according to Amherst County Sheriff L. J. Ayers III.

“Yes, that's correct. He actually had two badges. He had the Farmville PD badge and then he had another five-point, like a deputy sheriff's badge but it just said deputy sheriff of Virginia. It did not have a jurisdiction on that. But he actually had two badges in his possession,” Sheriff Ayers told The Herald on Tuesday. “Yes, one of them was a Farmville PD shield, yes sir.”

An Amherst man was taken into custody in Albemarle County last week after being arrested on New Year's Eve and is not a current or former Farmville police officer.

There had been reports of break-ins and burglaries in the area late last year, with residents in the neighborhoods where the crimes were committed telling investigating law enforcement officers about an individual with a badge claiming to be a member of the Farmville Police Department.

How would anyone, other than a genuine officer, acquire a Farmville Police Department badge? Chief of Police Doug Mooney wondered the same thing and believes the riddle was answered this weekend.

A former Farmville police officer, who lives in another jurisdiction, reports having his Farmville police badge stolen last year, Chief Mooney told The Herald on Monday.

“I haven't seen the badge…However, I'm being told it doesn't look like a fake or a reproduction. It looks like a genuine badge that we would issue,” Chief Mooney said.

“And (the suspect under arrest) is obviously not supposed to have a Farmville police badge. And we were perplexed about it until Saturday when we received a phone call that a former Farmville police officer had reported a crime earlier last year, that they were a victim of a crime in another jurisdiction, and it wasn't linked to this (suspect) until some of their property, with their name on it, was found in his (the suspect's) possession,” Chief Mooney said.

“So upon going back and questioning that person (the former police officer) they checked further and realized there was a badge in the possessions that was missing. So it was stolen from that person (the former police officer)…There was a badge stolen from that person earlier in the year…So that would explain it,” Chief Mooney said.

Chief Mooney added, “Frankly, it worried me how somebody would be in possession of an actual police badge without being a police officer and this would explain it. And the report was made by this person (the former town police officer) in being the victim of crime right when it happened. It wasn't any fault of the former officer, and it's somebody who hasn't been here for a number of years. So that would explain it…”

The Nottoway and Appomattox Sheriff Department's had each received report(s) in the last two months of someone showing a Farmville police department badge and claiming to be an officer in the police department.

The Nottoway County incidents occurred just before Christmas, Chief Deputy Corky Abernathy told The Herald on Monday.

“Yes, Yes, we had those,” Chief Deputy Abernathy said when asked if the department had received reports of someone showing a Farmville police department badge.

“We actually had five burglaries of some of the houses (in one day)…

In connection with those burglaries, the chief deputy said, an individual allegedly “went to some neighboring houses and evidently those people were home and yes, produced a Farmville badge and told them he was a Farmville police officer there doing some type of investigation in the area.”

The same scenario played out in Appomattox, according to Sheriff Barry Letterman.

“We had a break-in back on November 21. In the same neighborhood (an) individual, which we're pretty sure was the one that broke into this house, went to a house just up the street (at the Appomattox-Charlotte lines). One side's Appomattox, one side's Charlotte. The one that he broke into was in Appomattox. The one that he went to, which I think he was just checking to see if anybody was home because he was going to another one on the Appomattox side, he talked to the lady and she said (he said) he was there in reference to a Craigslist ad or so forth and she could see a badge on his belt and when she asked him who he was with he said Farmville Police Department,” Sheriff Letterman told The Herald.

Impersonating a police officer is against the law.

“It most definitely is and it should be,” Chief Mooney said.

Such an individual would be “impersonating somebody who should be in a position of trust, (that a citizen) should be able to take at face value.”

Never underestimate the value of asking to see a police ID, in addition to any badge, according to the police chief.

“If people are in doubt, especially if somebody is in plain clothes, they can ask to see a police ID and one should be produced,” said Chief Mooney, who noted that reports such as those in Appomattox and Nottoway said the individual was not in uniform.

Farmville police officers, the police chief stressed, are ready and willing to show their ID.

“All of our officers know, they have no problem-in plain clothes or the detectives-when you're out of uniform it's a matter of common decency to display your badge, but also your police ID; it puts (the public) at ease when you have both,” Chief Mooney said.

As for the suspect arrested last week, Chief Mooney said, “Yes, I have been told from…Fluvanna County, through my officers told by Fluvanna County and also Amherst, that there was a badge in the possession and it did appear to be one similar to what we had issued to our officers…We haven't physically seen it yet but I take on face value what the authorities are telling us from those localities; they would know.”