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SALT LAKE CITY — A man armed with a steak knife and a Sharpie was arrested Tuesday after police say he tried to impersonate an officer.
The arrest comes less than three months after the man was convicted in another case of impersonating a police officer.
About 7:40 a.m. Tuesday, Lucas Smith noticed something strange - he found the peep hole on his apartment door had been covered with a small piece of duct tape. Across the hall he noticed his neighbor's door had been written on with permanent black marker.
"The suspect had written on the door with a Sharpie, 'Under investigation by UPD,'" Ashdown said.
Smith is friends with his neighbors and he knows they were out of town, and he went to take a closer look at what was going on. There was a rag covering the neighbor's doorknob and when Smith pulled it off, someone came to the door from inside the apartment.
Fidencio Ulibarri, 28, flashed a card at Smith, claiming it was a badge and that he was a police officer. The neighbor, however, didn't believe the man, who had three large letters tattooed across the front of his neck and another tattoo over his left eyebrow, Ashdown said.
Smith responded saying he wasn't convinced and then said Ulibari threatened him.
"He said 'you want to get beat up?'" Smith responded by asking why a cop would just "beat someone up." From there Smith says Ulibari told him he was going to arrest him.
When the man told the neighbor to "go ahead, call police," the neighbor obliged.
At that point Smith got a cell phone and called police right in front of the suspect, but the suspect went back to searching the apartment, and remained there until the cops arrived.
As Smith was calling police, Ulibari picked the lock of the door he was standing in front of and went inside, Ashdown said.
When real officers arrived, they found Ulibari inside with a bag full of jewelry he had collected. He had also written another note with the Sharpie saying he was there as part of a Unified Police Department investigation, Ashdown said.
Police also discovered the man had a steak knife in his pocket.
Ulibarri was arrested for investigation of burglary, impersonating an officer and possession of a weapon by a restricted person.
In September, Ulibarri pleaded guilty in 3rd District Court to another charge of impersonating a police officer. According to court records, Ulibarri entered a woman's home and told her he was a Unified police officer and was "searching for somebody." He received a suspended jail sentence for his conviction.
In 2003, he was sentenced to up to five years at the Utah State Prison for felony escaping from official custody.
Writen by Pat Reavy and [Randall Jeppesen](<mailto: rjeppesen@ksl.com>)
