SEBASTIAN — A 29-year-old Sebastian man learned tricking law enforcement officers into thinking you’re one of them will give you the treat of a felony.

The Indian River County Sheriff’s Office arrested William Andrew McCann IV, of the 400 block of Hazel Street, Friday and charged him with impersonating a law enforcement officer, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a firearm on school property and misdemeanor unlawful use of a police badge, according to an arrest affidavit released Saturday.

McCann’s trail of deception has been traced to an Oct. 15 liquid oxygen leak on U.S. 1 in Gifford, said Indian River County Sheriff’s detective Joe Parrish.

McCann gained access to the location by duping sheriff’s deputies and Indian River Fire Rescue officials into believing he was an agent with federal Department of Homeland Security coming down from Melbourne to check on the situation.

He said Homeland Security was checking on the spill because it was close to the local headquarters of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. That explanation even made it to the Press Journal’s Oct. 16 story about the leak.

But just how long McCann has been pretending is unknown, officials said.

“That’s what we need the public’s help in finding out,” Parrish said. “We don’t know if he pulled someone over or what.”

Parrish said he received a tip Thursday about McCann impersonating a federal agent at a jewelry store and began to track him. The investigation showed McCann could not be a law enforcement officer because he is a convicted felon with burglary and theft convictions from New Jersey in the 1990s, Parrish said.

According to the affidavit, a sheriff’s detective stopped McCann at Sebastian Elementary School and he said: “I’m a federal agent with Homeland Security.”

The detective noticed McCann was armed with a loaded Sigsauer 9 millimeter pistol, handcuffs and a badge holder with a fake badge hanging around his neck.

“We have no indication that he was going to harm anybody,” Parrish said.

Parish said McCann is in the U.S. Army National Guard stationed in Fort Stewart, Ga.

During an interview with detectives, McCann said he thought his status as a soldier gave him authority to go to the scene. But Army officials said that is not so and when McCann was confronted with an Army official’s statement he recanted his story, Parrish said.

Indian River County Sheriff’s deputies, who are working with Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ask that anyone who had contact with McCann to call Parrish at (772) 978-6103.

By Keona Gardne, TCPalm.com

Tags: arrest, federal officer, firearm, police, William Andrew McCann

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