A Florida teen’s alleged attempt to get his friend out of a shoplifting bust would have been pretty ingenious — if it had worked. Give them credit for ingenuity, but a teen who posed as a police officer to get his friend out of a shoplifting charge is in dire need of a stop theft class.

The story begins as a 17-year-old strolled into a Walmart in Port St. Lucie, Florida with a badge on one hip and a gun on the other. As reported in www.nydailynews.com.

He flashed the shield at an employee and then handcuffed a 14-year-old who was caught stealing Yu-Gi-Oh! trading cards.

They almost got away with it. Had a store employee not wanted to rubber-neck as the thief was escorted to the police car, they would have gotten away with it. The employee watched the "cop" walk the young suspect outside, where he took off the cuffs. Then the employee called the police — the real ones.

Of course, the badge was fake. The gun was a pellet pistol. The handcuffs were a toy. And the 17-year-old, surprisingly, was not a real cop.

They did not go down easy. After attempting to run away, the two teens told officers that they were toting the gun and badge mostly for protection.

Both were arrested on charges of shoplifting and resisting arrest without violence. The “cop” was also charged with impersonating a police officer, a felony.

I hope they take good Florida theft class (http://stoptheftclass.com/Online-Theft-Shoplifting-Classes/Florida) and proceed to atone for their mistake by staying out of trouble in the future.