A 53-year-old man pleaded guilty in federal court to fraudulently using an official seal. The man, who is from Pennsylvania, owns a company that cleans up pet poop.

According to the man’s guilty plea, he bought fake Secret Service badges and identification cards from a company in China in order to impress women listed on a dating site. He also acknowledged that he tried to use the identification card to get out of a traffic ticket and the badge to get a cheaper hotel room.

According to an officer with the Reserve Township police, the man flashed the identification card after being pulled over for having a faulty brake light. About a month earlier, the man had tried to obtain the discount on the hotel room.

The man reportedly told the officer “he was a U.S. Secret Service agent who had just returned from the Republican National Convention.” The ID said that the man was a “senior special agent in the protective services division.” An assistant U.S. attorney said that the man bought the badges and IDs for $100 in March 2014. That was when he started identifying himself as a federal agent.

The man had also started buying rifles and handguns, but was not charged with illegal activities with those weapons. Because the man has pleaded guilty to a felony, he will have to get rid of the guns.

The Chinese company that manufactured and sold the identification cards and the badges hasn’t been identified by authorities. The man doesn’t have a recent criminal history, so the five years in prison that he faces on this charge could end up as probation.

If you have been charged with a federal crime, it’s important to begin working on your case as soon as possible. A criminal defense attorney can provide advice and guidance about how you should proceed from here.

Source: The Gazette, “Pooper scooper owner pleads guilty over fake federal badge,” Joe Mandak, Associated Press, Nov. 19, 2016

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