Brian Hitchcock stopped at an intersection in Redondo Beach, CA waiting for the light to turn green in his BMW 328i Convertible, when little did he know, what happened in the following few seconds would forever change his life. While the title of today’s blog post probably had you guessing that Brian was ambushed by a gang of criminals – you’d be wrong. Here’s what happened. When the light turned green Brian began to accelerate but was startled by the deafening sound of a police siren coming from right behind his BMW. He stepped on the brakes and was instantly hit by motorcycle cop Anthony Parente who made an acrobatic summersault right into the backseat of his BMW Convertible.

A quick thinking pedestrian then snapped the above picture. It became an instant viral hit.  And we have to admit, the photo showing a cop’s boots sticking up from the BMW’s back seat is one of the funniest things we’ve ever seen. But there was nothing funny about the numerous charges Brian was about to be unrightfully accused of.

When Brian stepped out of his car to aid the upside down motorcycle cop, the officer made a dramatic “Officer Down” call which had Brian swarmed by cop cars, fire trucks, and ambulances in a matter of minutes. Immediately assumed to be the wrong doer, Brian was blamed for “stopping short” and “reversing into the cop,” both which meant a felony charge of “assault with a deadly weapon.” The situation turned uglier when Parente said Hitchcock “intimidated” him and “sarcastically” asked him for help post-crash. As if things couldn’t possibly get any worse for Hitchcock, Parente also admitted he feared Hitchcock would snatch the shotgun from his crashed motorcycle. Following Parente’s blatant accusations, Hitchcock was aggressively questioned by a flock of officers for up to two and a half hours. Talk about a rough day.

Fast forward one year and there’s a myriad of additional juicy facts that we can now share with you. It turns out that Parente had developed a masterful talent of frauding for paid medical leave. In the past few years, the 44-year-old Parente had already taken six medical leaves and each time filed for workman’s compensation. When Hitchcock went to trial to dispute the various charges, it turned out that he wasn’t the first victim of one of Parente’s schemes.

Most notably, a certain Peter Brown come forward during Hithcock’s trial claiming to have been caught up in a very similar scheme involving Parente smashing into his car when stopped at a red light. Predictably, Parente took more paid leave as he claimed ’soft tissue damage’ as part of yet another scam involving an innocent and virtually defenceless citizen. Brown knew he had been had but eventually settled with Parente through his insurance company. And Parente would of gotten away with it again if it weren’t for Hitchcock refusing to settle and instead taking the scamming motorcycle cop to trial.

We like to be optimists but it’s stories like these that force us to be realists. It’s a curious world out there, folks.

[Source: LA Weekly]