Pretend Cop Calls Real Police 'Demons'

RIVERSIDE, IL — A Mokena man faces several charges in Riverside, Burr Ridge and Countryside after police officers reported seeing him driving a car with "police-type lights" and attempting "to make traffic stops" in their towns last week. After he was nabbed, Martin J. Fridrich, 40, concocted a tall tale about his efforts and then called real police "demons," according to detectives.

Riverside police saw a car with an oscillating strobe light driving 67 miles an hour in a 25 mph zone on Woodside Road at 4 a.m. Thursday. Police said they tried to stop the car at Woodside and Park Place but the car sped out of Riverside. A radio call went out to other departments to keep an eye out for this car. Countryside police saw the vehicle early Thursday, too, and put out a similar call, according to police.

The car later made its way to Burr Ridge, where the driver tried to make a traffic stop and landed in the hands of real Burr Ridge police officers instead, according to police.

While in the custody of Burr Ridge police, Fridrich told Riverside detectives he was an officer of the law himself and that he was chasing people who'd harassed him on the road, according to the detectives, who called his claims "completely fictitious."

Then Fridrich told the real badge-wearing, gun-toting officers of the law that police were "demons."

Fridrich, of the 11600 block of Roberts Street in Mokena, is no stranger to the inside of a jail cell. He spent Thanksgiving in the Will County jail on charges of misdemeanor domestic battery.

Riverside police charged him with aggravated fleeing and eluding police, a felony. He also faces several traffic charges. Burr Ridge and Countryside police are pursuing charges, as well.

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photo of Martin Fridrich via Will County sheriff's department