SICK BURN

Fake Cops Accused of Using Blowtorch to Rob Check-Cashing Stores

Four Maryland men kidnapped and terrorized their victims to get access to the loot, says the Department of Justice.

Four men are facing federal charges for allegedly dressing up as police officers to kidnap and rob employees of Baltimore check cashing businesses, the Department of Justice announced Friday. Dennis Allen Hairston, Donte Davon Stanley, Davonne Tramont Dorsey, and Franklin Jay Smith are named in a newly unsealed 12-count indictment, which accuses the quartet of donning law enforcement-style body armor and police badges, and outfitting a car with police emergency lights, to pull over at least three victims and force them out at gunpoint. They then threatened their victims with guns, burning one with a blowtorch, to “get information…in order to access the check cashing business[es] where [they] worked, with the intent to remove all the cash from the business[es],” according to a DOJ press release. If convicted, each faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.