Can you drive a look-alike Florida trooper vehicle? This Broward woman got her answer

Can you drive a look-alike Florida trooper vehicle? A Broward woman found out the hard way.

While conducting a traffic stop in Northwest Miami-Dade around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, two Florida Highway Patrol troopers said they saw a black and tan Dodge Charger with a light bar on its roof traveling north on State Road 826.

It had the same color scheme of their own Charger, but it also had decals on the side that read “FSO Guard” and another one “resembling close to a police department badge,” the troopers wrote in a police report.

The troopers quickly finished the traffic stop, got into their car and pulled over Iulia Pugachev, 28, the driver of the look-alike police vehicle, on the Palmetto Expressway at Northwest 74th Street.

When questioned, troopers say, the Hollywood woman first said her vehicle already had the trooper color scheme when she purchased it from a car auction.

But after the troopers told her that FHP doesn’t sell any of its used units with the same color scheme, Pugachev said she had her North Miami-based security company vehicle wrapped in black and tan because she had seen FHP’s patrol units and “fell in love with the color scheme,” according to the report. She also said she had the blue and white light bar installed on her car’s roof.

Pugachev was arrested, accused of operating a motor vehicle with no registration, imitation on a Florida Highway Patrol marked unit, and misuse of a dealer license plate. She was then uncuffed and given a notice to appear in court. Her Dodge Charger was also impounded, said FHP spokesman Lt. Alejandro Camacho.

When asked whether the Hollywood-based company that wrapped Pugachev’s Charger could be in legal trouble, Camacho said that FHP’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations is following up on the case.

“Because it is active, I cannot provide any additional information,” he said.

According to Florida law, a person in the state can’t color or cause to be colored any motor vehicle or motorcycle the same or similar color as the ones prescribed for FHP.

“As a reminder, it is a 1st degree misdemeanor for a vehicle to be painted with the same color scheme prescribed for FHP vehicles,” FHP Miami said on X, formerly Twitter.