Driver installs emergency lights to 'mess with friends'

An 18-year-old Indian Hills man was cited Monday for attaching red and blue emergency lights on the front of his pickup so he could "mess with his friends" by initiating traffic stops.

According to reports, Douglas County dispatch advised all units Monday at 9:30 p.m. of a white pickup truck making traffic stops. Dispatch advised the truck did not belong to the sheriff's office, Nevada Highway Patrol, or Washoe Tribal Police.

A Douglas County deputy located the vehicle at the Chevron station at Highway 395 and Mica Drive.

The driver, John Bommelman, was accompanied by his girlfriend. He admitted installing the lights on the front of his truck to have fun.

He reportedly told the officer he used the emergency lights earlier that evening to pull over his girlfriend. She said she knew it was Bommelman and not law enforcement during the phony traffic stop.

He told deputies he knew the lights were illegal and he should have removed them because he researched the law six months ago.

Deputies confiscated the lights and cited Bommelman for operating a vehicle with red emergency lights. He is to appear in East Fork Justice Court on Jan. 4.

The officer said Bommelman wasn't cited for impersonating an officer because he did not injure or defraud another.

Bommelman told the officer he learned "not to pretend to be a cop" from the experience.