Driver who followed woman was police impostor, officers say

He shouted and honked at the woman driving the Jeep, saying he was an undercover cop and urging her to pull over, authorities say.

But the woman said she became scared during the would-be traffic stop Wednesday night, so she kept driving and instead called 911, Ocean Ridge police said.

Her hunch was right: The man following her was an impostor, according to the police who arrested him.

Vincent Alexander Cidoni, driving a Hyundai, tried to get the woman to pull over about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday as the woman drove north on Ocean Boulevard near Woolbright Road in Ocean Ridge, police said.

The woman told the dispatcher she was scared and that the man claimed to be an officer. Cidoni kept following the woman until a real Ocean Ridge officer spotted the two stopped on the side of the road in Manalapan, police said.

Cidoni told the officer he was an “undercover Coral Springs police officer” and that he was trying to pull over the woman because “she was driving badly,” police said.

When Cidoni was asked to hand over his credentials and badge by the officer, he said he used to be a Police Explorer and handed over a cellphone, according to a police report.

Officers said they noticed Cidoni smelled of alcohol; Cidoni said he was drinking Captain Morgan rum, said he thought he was in Fort Lauderdale and said “people are driving bad all over,” according to the report.

Cidoni, 25, of Coral Springs, faces charges of falsely impersonating an officer and violating a driver’s license restriction.

State driving records list at least 10 violations for Cidoni, including speeding, running a red light and driving with an expired license plate. He has a pending court date in January for a DUI charge he received in July in Coral Springs.

Cidoni