Woman reports bizarre fake traffic stop

An Athens woman reported she was robbed Sunday night after she stopped on the Eastside for what she thought was an unmarked police car, Athens-Clarke police said.

The woman told police she was driving on Spring Valley Road about 9 p.m. when she saw blue lights flashing from the windshield of a silver Crown Victoria behind her, so she pulled over thinking an officer was stopping her, police said.

Two men got out of the car, both armed with guns, and one came to the driver's side and stuck a pistol in the woman's face, demanding "Give up the dope," according to police.

He also told the woman, "You give me everything, or I'm going to knock your teeth down your throat," police said.

Another man went to the other side of the car and spoke with the passenger, police said, and the woman told officers she heard the passenger say it wasn't his car and that he didn't have anything.

One of the gunmen then pulled the driver out of the car and stole $200 and some rings she was wearing, police said.

The woman pulled away from the robber, then ran toward the Glendale Heights neighborhood nearby, when she heard gunshots, police said.

She banged on some doors, and one resident told officers that when she opened the door, the 25-year-old Athens woman was screaming hysterically that she'd been robbed, police said.

The resident called 911, and when officers arrived, the victim's passenger flagged them down, then gave a different version of events, according to police.

As the preliminary investigation wound down about 10:45 p.m., an officer was leaving the scene and saw a silver Crown Victoria pull onto Spring Valley Road from Murrell Road, police said.

The car sped off toward Athena Drive, and by the time the officer turned his patrol car around, he lost sight of the other car, according to police.

The passenger in the woman's car, a 34-year-old Colbert man, told an officer there was no phony police car or armed robbery, and that when the woman stopped the car, he spoke to a man he knew as "Bo Pete," police said.

Investigators on Monday planned to re-interview the driver as they tried to make sense of what really happened.

"I do believe something happened, and it was drug-related, and it's something that needs to be thoroughly investigated," Athens-Clarke police Capt. Clarence Holeman said.

Police said one of the gunmen demanded drugs. The passenge

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