Man fakes it ... to bowl

A Savannah man was arrested and sent to jail Saturday after he was accused of impersonating a sheriff's deputy in an attempt to go bowling at Hunter Army Airfield, police said.

Jeffrey Eugene Ferguson, 46, pulled up to the base gate on Montgomery Street around 9:30 a.m. Saturday and handed the guard his driver's license.

The problem was that his license was cracked in half, said Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police spokesman Sgt. Mike Wilson.

So, the gate guard requested a second form of identification.

That's when Ferguson pulled out the badge of a Chatham County sheriff's lieutenant.

"He told the guard the badge belonged to him," Wilson said. "But the guard became suspicious when he noticed the driver's license was cracked, which is unusual for a police officer."

The guard summoned SCMPD to check out Ferguson's identification.

Police arrived and quickly learned Ferguson was not a sheriff's deputy and was not supposed be driving, Wilson said. His license had been suspended for failure to pay child support.

Police seized the badge and arrested Ferguson.

He was being held Saturday night at the Chatham County jail on a charge of impersonating a police officer.

Ferguson later told police he found the badge at a work site on Wheaton Street.

"He was very cooperative," Wilson said. "But he had a duty to turn the badge in."