While they are a staple of crime investigation procedurals, the fact is that many agencies do use undercover officers to get information and make arrests. So it only stands to reason that the folks doing the infiltrating have to do some wild things to stay in character.
Someone asked “Former undercover cops of Reddit, what is the craziest thing you had to do to not blow your cover?” and netizens shared their stories. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to detail your own encounters in the comments below.
#1
My friend who was an undercover cop said that multiple times he had to let himself be arrested to not blow his cover. Like when a sting was going down or whatever instead of being like hey I'm a cop, he would get arrested along with everyone else.
Image credits: natureruler
#2
My friend used to be a state trooper. She told me about how she used to have to go undercover as a h*oker to try to catch Johns. She didn't do so well, though. She was far too polite, so they all knew something was up.
Image credits: Buy_My_BBW_Panties
#3
When I first got started in forensics it was when chat rooms and webcams were taking off - so p***philes thought they'd be able to figure out who was who on the internet since clearly you'll know you're webcamming with a 40-year-old dude munching on donuts instead of a 14-year-old girl. I was a naive 18-year-old woman who was just getting started in policing, doing some clerical work for my hometown police department when I heard a couple people talking about how they were having a hard time chatting up creeps now that webcams were a thing. I told them why not just hire someone to act like an underage girl or boy and coach them on what to say and how to set up meetings to catch these a******s.
Lo and behold I volunteered myself for the job. We set up a 'bedroom' in one of the upstairs offices complete with a bed, a desk, and some posters from one of the officers teenage daughters. I had to wear some of my high school sports clothes or pajamas while talking to predators via Webcam - I passed notes back and forth with the team of officers and passed it off as trying to do homework while chatting. The hardest part was to still seem interested and innocent while this dude on the screen is telling me what type of horrible things he wants to do to my body thinking I'm still a child.
Edit 1: Thank you kind people for the silver, gold, and platinum - I just wanted to keep other people from getting abused and hurt the way I had been as a child. I was just doing my job even though I was kind of blundering into things way outside of my paygrade.
Edit 2: I got a ton of questions in the comments or in PM's so I'll try to answer them as best I can.
- What about fraud or entrapment? Regarding entrapment we got around it because it really didn't apply with the way we were doing things. I never actually went into chatroom and solicited people via text or webcam. I didn't have to solicit anyone, they were literally just waiting in the chatrooms ready to pounce. What usually happened was I would login with a girly or teenagery handle and people would start sending private chat requests before I could even post hello on the chat feed. We often had so many that sometimes we had to let a few of them go because there were just too many for me to try and talk to or type with. So, we never actually tried to get them to talk to me - often times we couldn't get them to shut up, once they got going they had no inhibitions at all.
- If you go look up a teen chat, makeup a cute handle and just post saying hi you'll get swarmed by pedos trying to chat you up or get you to cam with them. I don't recommend doing this because it will destroy any faith you have in humanity.
- Who did we catch? How many? We netted somewhere around 120 men and a handful of women - the most notable was a few clergy, two city councilmen, a state trooper, school teachers, and other people you would just trust around kids. All of them looked like regular people and seemed like people I would interact with everyday without any idea that they were soliciting s*x from minors online.
- Was there anyone that got away? Yes, a few never showed. But there was only one that got away that I just know went after real victim - or had already done so already - that really made me worried. He would try and chat off and on when I was on and he got a thrill out of telling me how he would like to tie me up and do all sorts of t*****e sounding things to me - in great detail. I actually started crying and he just laughed and said it would be fine after I got used to it. I don't regret doing this work but it was quite the mind f**k, especially at 18 years old.
Edit 3 - Some people have asked about how they can help, where to get resources on educating kids and teens on how to stay safe while enjoying the internet, or where they can report crime tips - so I'm going to dump some resources for everyone.
- Center for Missing and Exploited Children - [**http://www.missingkids.com/home**](http://www.missingkids.com/home) - has a cyber tip line (US) where you can report abuse or child p**n as well as age appropriate resources for child safety online and off.
- National Human Trafficking Hotline - [https://humantraffickinghotline.org/report-trafficking](https://humantraffickinghotline.org/report-trafficking) - call, text, and chat hotlines for immediate help as well as resources on recognizing and reporting trafficking.
- Europol Child Abuse - [https://www.europol.europa.eu/stopchildabuse](https://www.europol.europa.eu/stopchildabuse) - resources for those in the UK on reporting and helping exploited children.
Image credits: calypso_cane
#4
My father worked for NCIS. He told me about an incident where his guys set up a sting to bust some d**g suppliers who turned out to be local police setting up their own sting. They figured it out when they tried to bust each other.
Image credits: thecloserocks
#5
I know a guy who often went undercover as a j****e. He was committed. He'd stop showering for a while before a gig and p**s on his tracksuit before going in to work. He was so good that he managed to get the same dealer convicted twice in the space of a year and they never suspected he was the rat. He had multiple police records under different names too.
Image credits: anon
#6
I have gone undercover online to infiltrate child p**nography rings. Nothing too intense... but I had to interact with suspect’s online/over phone who were f*****g sick in the head and act like it was not the most vile s**t in the world.
Image credits: smw2102
#7
My cousin was an under cover ATF agent. Anyway, they were trying to bust some guys for illegal alcohol distribution and were building a rapport by going under cover. My cousin doesn't take his ATF badge with him when he's undercover because if anyone ever saw it, he could get shot. Anyway, some hot-headed black-and-white cops came over and started harassing them. My cousin couldn't blow his cover, but pretty soon the police started getting physical and they beat c**p out of my cousin and the guys he is trying to get evidence from. They take them all into the police station only to find out that my cousin is ATF. My cousin was pissed because cops aren't supposed to beat people up. He is currently filing a law suit against that police dept.
Image credits: johnny_tremain
#8
One time a homeland security officer came up to my house undercover, flashed his badge and asked if he could come in. Once he was in he pulled out a piece of paper with my neighbors face on it. He asked if I had seen him around lately, when I asked what he did, and let him know I haven't seen him around, he told me what he was wanted for. R**e, child abuse, d***s, the whole lot. Turns out he r***d his step-daughter and once he found out he was wanted he went back to El Salvador. I thought they only flashed their badges in the movies, but turns out, the s**t's real.
Image credits: bigburt-
#9
Not a former undercover cop, but I have an second hand story about an undercover cop.
So, this guy appears or of nowhere and befriends a relative of mine who was involved in illegal stuff. Dude was very friendly and just down to party. Had money. Paid for...product. Everything. Would drop in on parties and even allegedly hooked up with “hoes”. Then he placed an order much larger than before. Few weeks later, relative of mine is arrested and is currently in prison.
Craziest thing an undercover cop had to do the keep their cover? Buy d***s and f**k bitches.
Image credits: PseudoEngel
#10
I worked as a transcriptionist for a while, and I transcribed some tape taken off of body mics of undercover officers working a very notorious domestic t*******m case. It was crazy! They would sound like an absolute backwoods hill people lunatic while talking to their marks, then later when talking to the other police officers, would sound all business and like a very professional person.
Image credits: fenwai
#11
My cousin who's in secret services acted like a d**g-a****t homeless beggar and semi-crazy muslim religious salesman owning stall for surveillance purposes.
Image credits: anon
#12
Not very exciting but a guy that worked with me was going to this biker bar frequently to get in with a gang (d**g related). He didn't want to get hammered and do something stupid so he would take his beers into the bathroom with him dump out half and fill it with water.
Image credits: ItsTonyDee
#13
City Cop here.
We don't do too much long term undercover but our General Orders have a policy covering use of d***s on duty in certain circumstances. While it doesn't specify that we can do d***s, it states that if we consume them we have to immediately respond to our Departments health clinic for documentation and treatment.
Image credits: thebarkingdog
#14
As a former correctional officer:
We had a situation where a major police department planted a cop in the prison to get information on a guy they believed was orchestrating hits from inside the prison. The Warden knew and I knew (by accident) but not a single other CO knew, nor did any of the staff, including medical, and that's the way they wanted it. He went through receiving, he was categorized and placed. It was wild. He was there for a week, got the info they needed and got him out. It didn't become public knowledge that he was undercover until after I had left and it was a long while after as they were making a case. That was a surreal moment.
Image credits: anon
#15
Not a cop but a guy my mom dated for a long time was. Older guy, in his 70s now, he was fresh out of the academy and at the Asbury Park Riots. Sad scary s**t. And then was an under cover narcotics cop for 14 years during the 70 and 80s with the NJSP. He was Puerto Rican, and spoke Spanish, was an ex marine, and became a state trooper. They utilized his ability to blend in with organized crime in the Latin community. He had to do c*ke in front of a bunch of dudes during a buy one night, and basically stuck his knife in and blew a mound up his nose. Then he started having a minor paranoia/panic attack that they were going to find out he was a cop (thanks to the gram of blow he just took to the dome) He was breathing heavy and went out for air, his heart was pounding out of his chest, panicking over how to get out of it, one of the gangsters came outside to talk to him, he’s ready to run or fight, guy goes “Man I’ve never seen someone snort that much at once man! You ok?!” He sighs a huge sigh of relief, and was like “Yeah I never did that much... I’m having trouble breathing heh heh.” The Guy was really nice, brings him a drink and they smoked a cig. Everyone is joking that he has the heart of a lion to take that much. He actually felt bad about locking that one guy up when it all went down. Think he said he tried to help him or get a reduced sentence or something. There are other stories.
Image credits: MAGIGS
#16
My cousin worked undercover in the biker community. He was really into working out and body building so he managed to convince everybody that he treated his body like a temple and didn't drink, do d***s, or eat like s**t. That wasn't very far from the truth so it wasn't hard for him to play that part. He is also a former Marine sharpshooter so he is tough as nails and pretty heavily tattooed so he definitely gave off a 'don't f**k with me' vibe.
Image credits: csudebate
#17
My dad did undercover for several years and talked about a m**h head that he hung out with all the time and even babysat her kids when she went out to get high. This went on for several months while they were figuring out who the big dealer was and acquiring warrants. He grew a beard, had a fake id, drove an old s****y car. Eventually they got warrants to bust a bunch of people in the d**g ring and he actually was part of the SWAT team at the time and was part of the group that smashed in doors and arrested her and a bunch of others in the area. He had to wear a balaclava to protect his identity when with the SWAT team. He said it was actually really difficult because he had become an important part of those kids’ lives and was kind of attached to them and now they had no mother and had to be taken to child protective services. I never got to ask him more questions about this before he passed but I have no idea how he balanced this crazy second life and then came home and acted like a normal husband and father in our family.
Image credits: Crom80x
#18
I must have been 15 when one day the door bell rang and I opened the door to two guys looking very much like real tough street guys. They showed me their badges and asked for my mum or dad. Turned out that they wanted to stake out a public playground behind our garden that was used by some d**g dealers for their mules (people drinking large amounts of water and puking up little packages with some substance in it). There was a multi-storey Bank near the playground but the bank didn’t want anything to do with it. So they asked my parents whether they could set up a surveillance team on our terrace for a couple of days. My parents allowed it. And my mum prepared food for the guys all week long.
Image credits: anon
#19
I know a guy (retired police officer) who works as an investigator of crooked doctors. He dresses up in disguises and is given a fake name to use. He goes into doctor’s offices and tries to find out if a doctor who is suspected of overprescribing narcotics is legit or not. He told me a story about a time he went into see a dentist about a minor toothache and walked outa there with a prescription for Percocet and Dilaudid. He says there are plenty of legit doctors out there, but there are also a lot of careless ones who give into their d**g-seeking patients.
Image credits: YOUNGJOCISRELEVANT
#20
Well since no one is saying anything, I'll just throw out a slightly on topic conversation change... There's a show on Netflix called "Deep Undercover". They are all 25-30 minute episodes about a real life undercover operation. There's like 50 episodes and some of them are completely insane. I think the craziest one was about the New Orleans police department. I highly recommend it.
EDIT: Since so many ppl are wanting to watch this show, don’t get your hopes up for binge watching purposes. They all have the same format so after 7-8 episodes it starts to get really repetitive. I usually watch a couple before I get bored, but the first night I watched a s**t ton. So I don’t want y’all going in with really high expectations and being disappointed lol.
Image credits: Fearless_Ingenuity
#21
Not a cop, but fell prey to an undercover operation. I feel obligated to preface this with how amazed I am at how integrated this man was in our gang. If giving an Oscar-worthy performance is the standard, I have to say, I'm pretty f*****g impressed by what you guys can do. Over the course of several months, this cop earned our trust. Hell, at one point, I would have said that I trusted that man more than my own brother, who was also in the gang (to be fair, I caught my brother stealing product from us more than once, but I trusted him to not directly destroy my livelihood). Suffice to say, this cop's acting skill was one of the number one factors that led to us getting busted.
This man, let's call him Dave, was absolutely fearless and tough as nails. One of our initiation rituals involved letting members of the group wail on you for three minutes, no holding back. If you were still breathing afterwards, you were in. After getting pummeled to the ground by seven or eight different men, Dave wasn't just alive. It was almost as if he enjoyed it (he was probably smiling because he got his foot in the door, now that I think about it).
To get to the *craziest* thing Dave did, I need to explain how our gang functioned. We start off being refereed to as a number, both to protect identity and as a form of putting lower ranked members in their place. Names had to be earned. We didn't exactly have a set criteria for earning a name, but members often had to bring in enough income for the gang, earn the leader's trust, and commit various violent acts for the benefit of the group before a name was even considered. All names followed the same theme: Astronomy. Our leader was known as Vega.
The day Dave earned his name, Vega had him as a getaway driver for a group of members. Their job was to sneak into a rival dealer's house, steal his product, and escape in Dave's car. As they were making their getaway, someone opened fire on the vehicle and Dave took a round to the forearm. Without even slowing down, he managed to get our guys back to the house using one arm to drive. After his arrival, Vega and I rushed him to the ER as he sat there, holding a jacket against the wound, trying to control his breaths. Within the next day, he made a full recovery.
Once Dave got back, everyone showered him with gratitude and praised his badassery. Vega approached him with a name tag in his hand and pinned it to Dave's shirt, signifying that he earned his right to be known as something more than a number: Sirius.
I don't hold any grudges against him for putting us behind bars. That man saved my life. Wherever you are, man, thank you. You changed who I was for the better. I will never forget the time that you earned your Sirius tag.
Image credits: AlmostTooRandy
#22
Not a cop, but in college I took a few criminal justice classes. Our professor, who I will call Bob,was a cop for 15 or so years and had gone undercover in the 80s for a very long time. Bob was biker as a hobby and he was sent undercover to break up a m**h ring in the biker community. Bob arranged to buy some m**h from some guy, and shortly after the buy the dealer was arrested.
The dealers sister started telling everyone she thought Bob was a cop, and some of the other bikers started asking him questions. So day or so after the sister started accusing Bob of being a narc the entire group was at a bar. Bob told a few of the guys to meet him outside in a few minutes, and Bob told the sister he had some m**h for her and to come outside. When they finally got out there Bob told her "Where I'm from friends dont call friends narcs."
He then beat the s**t out of her in front of the entire group. He kicked her as hard as he could between her legs, which while not as painful if you're a woman, still hurts. Then he said he punched her 4 or 5 times in the face. HARD. He said he didn't wanna do it, but after he did that no one ever accused him of being a cop again.
Image credits: Cthulha243
#23
I once was the gardener for a cop who worked undercover in the s*x trade to identify pimps/traffickers and extract underage kids. She retired early due to mental health issues likely stemming from d**g use during her time undercover. To keep cover she would do the d***s that were being offered/used. Of course things spiralled out of control for her and suddenly she’s on permanent paid leave and she stays in the house most days hiding from the world.
So for her, what she did to keep cover is offer up her sanity in exchange for some successful arrests.
Image credits: Whyevenbotherbeing
#24
Not an officer but was on the wrong end of an undercover operation. In college I developed a liking for opioids and it quickly spiraled out of control. I couldn’t afford my habit so I started selling to afford using. I sold very small amounts and only to my “friends.” It was a horrible thing to do but a*******n makes you so crazy things and not think clearly.
A kid I regularly sold to, I’ll call him Larry, came over my house one night with his “best friend from high school.” The kid looked about our age (young 20s at the time) and I considered Larry to be a very good friend of mine. I had know him all 4 years we had been at college and hung out fairly regularly. He asked if his friend could have my number as he was moving to our area for work and needed a connect. I said sure and that was that.
I never sold on campus and for some reason this kid only wanted to meet me in the parking lot on campus. I kept telling him no until finally one time I hit a dry patch and needed all the help I could get. I agreed to meet him in the school parking lot. I gave him two pills for $60 and turned to get out of his truck. I felt a hand on my forearm and turned to see another guy with one hand on me and a gun in the other pointed directly at me. Figured I was getting robbed. Turned out it was the police and my “friend” had set me (and others) up in an effort to get his sentence reduced.
The system is so f****d up that their one goal is to arrest college kids on campus and dangle large sentences with mandatory minimums on them so they are “forced” to become a CI and avoid the hefty sentences attached to the mandatory minimums. They R.O.R. you and you’re supposed to keep in constant contact with the uncover officer and supply him with names and targets they can arrest. The issue is you’re not under any supervision and you’re not expected to rehabilitate yourself. Larry ended up continuing to use despite being a CI.
The cops don’t d**g test nor help with the necessary rehab they just want to make more and more arrests. It’s a bull s**t system that takes advantage of young vulnerable addicts. Larry lived alone and was required to keep all of his dealings private so that the officer’s cover wasn’t blown and Larry’s status as a CI wasn’t jeopardized. He went silent for a few days and no one was sure why. His best friend decided to see what was up and went to his apartment. Larry had OD’d alone in his apartment about 36-48 hours before his best friend found him.
I didn’t end up helping the cops and instead went into rehab, then jail, released on parole and concurrent probation. I was facing a mandatory minimum of 4 years and the judge said I should thank him for his lenience as I could have gone to jail for up to 30 years. Fortunately I’m still alive. I know a lot of people who lost the fight with a*******n.
Image credits: Koala_Pear
#25
Used to be night manager of a s*x shop. A s*******d vice cop and his lady came in late at night, and the vice cop proceeded to brag about how he had been part of the team that helped recently shut down a local strip club--every Friday, the chief would hand him and his partner each $1000 cash and send them to the strip club with instructions to do whatever they could to try and buy p***y and d***s. Apparently their first few trips were a dud, but after a while, the one in my store was able to cajole one of the girls into giving him a b*****b. He came in her mouth, then flashed the badge before she could even swallow.
He then proceeded to demand to use our bathroom....I told him "no dice," public restrooms + adult retail is a bad combination for everyone. He said he was a cop, I told him that was completely irrelevant. He protested by pissing his pants in my store and telling me that I made him do it before storming out with his lady.
TL;DR - If you live in Butler County Ohio, 2000 of your tax dollars are spent weekly on table dances and blowjobs for idiotic m***********g bro-ciopaths who aren't even housebroken. Way to serve and protect, d******d.
#26
Answering for my husband because he only lurks. Also, this was from a simpler time before the internet.
My husband and his brother worked for neighboring departments. Husband was undercover narcotics and his brother was a beat cop.
One night my husband was buying some crack from a group of dudes. One of the friends of the seller recognized my husband, probably from court or something. The seller’s friend started saying “This guy is a f*****g cop! I know he’s a cop. I’ve seen him before! You have to tell us if you’re a cop!”
First of all, that’s not true.
Second of all, my husband is a d**k.
My husband replies “no I’m not a f*****g cop. My piece of s**t brother is. How do you know my brother? Why do you know cops in [neighboring city]? [Seller], your boy is a f*****g narc. I’m not about to buy from a f*****g narc.”
Seller and his OTHER friends beat the s**t out of the guy who recognized my husband. Husband left the location unscathed, but sans crack.
#27
Not a cop but i did work for the liquor board in the city next to my town busting bars for underage drinking. When i would get served i would have to text the officer in charge and he would come in and take my picture with the drink then fine the bar (typically a few hundred dollars) and the bar would get a strike (3 strikes and they loose their liquor license), when i would get served im not allowed to drink any alcoholic beverages. Only once did i actually have to drink the drink served to me, i was at a sketchy biker bar and they're known for underage drinking and already have 2 strikes, they're also know for getting rough with the informants like some employees and patrons assaulting the kids (18-20), so i walk in and ask for a Budweiser i show him my real ID and he serves me my beer, before i can even pul out my phone the bar tender grabs my wrist and asks me if i work for the liquor board, i tell him no and he says "ok then chug your beer". So i slam the bottle of bud and he lets me go and then tells me "i have my eye on you boy" and gets me another bud i then take a snap chat of me at the bar with my drink and high tail it out of the bar. I then show the picture to the officer and tell him everything that happened and he heads into the bar and ends up fining the bar and the bar tender and giving them their last strike. They end up taking everything to court and i get called in as a witness and have to testify in court everything that happened, the bar looses the case and when im walking out to my car the owner yells to me "hey kid watch your s**t, you'll get whats coming to you". So far nothing has happened to me, this happened about 3 years ago so i dont think anything will happen to me.
Edit: im getting a lot of hate, people calling me scum and degenerate so heres something that'll p**s you guys off even more. I wasn't even getting paid to do it either.
Edit: ok guys to give some back story as well on this, my area has had a huge problem with underage DUIs and has ended in the deaths of a number of them, so i really didnt have all to much of a problem doing it either because it directly help reduce underage drinking and driving. Also to the people PMing me with names of informants thinking im one of them, i am not and even if it was i wouldn't tell you, so please stop.
