"I work for you guys:" Sturtevant man accused of impersonating an officer, trying to lure young girls

STURTEVANT (WITI) -- A 27-year-old Sturtevant man faces multiple criminal charges for allegedly impersonating a police officer. The accused is Benjamin Ogas.

The criminal charges filed against Ogas include: one count of impersonating a peace officer, one count of obstructing an officer, one count of disorderly conduct, four counts of attempt false imprisonment, and 14 counts of misdemeanor bail jumping. He faces 21 charges in all.

Ogas was arrested by Racine police.

It began Sunday afternoon, at a playground.

"We were like, running around -- just running around playing tag," Rachel Chavez said.

One of the three girls noticed a man watching them as they played near Roosevelt Elementary School. They wondered whether Benjamin Ogas was the same man they'd seen earlier near Rachel Chavez's home.

"He said `hey little girl, come here` so then that creeped me out and I knew he was following us," Rachel Chavez said.

Chavez says she called her mom, and met her near their home -- a few blocks from the park. That's when they saw Ogas again.

"He came up to us and he said he was a sheriff. Then me and my mom asked if he could show us his badge and he said `do you want to be arrested?` and pulled out some fake handcuffs," Chavez said.

"He goes in his pocket and I back up because I don`t know what he`s got in his pocket so I`m like `I`m calling the cops right now,'" Chavez's mother said.

That's when Ogas took off on his bicycle.

Police spotted him behind the "Neighborhood Bar."

According to the criminal complaint filed against him, when an officer tried to stop Ogas, he said "I work for you guys" and pedaled away.

Police caught up with him shortly thereafter.

"We heard the tires screech or whatever, so I turn around and look out the window and the kid rides his bike to about here, the cop pulls into the driveway, hits the back of the bike but he didn`t knock him down, and then another cop pulls into this driveway. They`re standing there and this cop runs over and tackles him off the bike," Mack Smith, who witnessed the arrest said.

Police say Ogas wouldn't identify himself, continuing to claim "I work for you guys. I'm helping you bust the drugs."

Police didn't buy it, and Ogas was arrested.

Chavez's mom says from now on, none of her children will be going to the park alone.

"That makes me mad. I can`t let my kids walk around -- not even a couple blocks, because of guys like that," Chavez's mother said.

Ogas is awaiting trial on charges related to a June incident in which he's accused of trying to steal a sheriff's department squad car from a repair facility.

If convicted in this latest case filed against him, Ogas faces up to six years in prison and $10,000 in fines.