Barry County Authorities Apprehend Man Who Posed As Deputy In Burglary:

Lewis Coker (mug shot BCSO)

By Kathee Baird

Golden, Mo.- Authorities in Barry County say they arrested a Reeds Spring man this morning (08-19-14) who terrorized a woman and posed as a deputy.

Sheriff Mick Epperly says his office received a call for help about 8:00 a.m. from a woman near Golden who said a man was trying to get in her Kings Cross Lane residence.  When Epperly and other deputies arrived, the homeowner told them “that a man was trying to get in her residence.  The woman told law enforcers she believed the man was armed.

The woman said the man asked if her husband was home and when she stated no, asked if she was the owner of the RV.  The woman says that’s when Lewis Coker, 60, stated “he was with the Sheriff’s Department and to let him in.”  She said that when Coker reached into the back band of his pants she thought he was reaching for a weapon.  

The woman told deputies she grabbed her keys and ran to the garage as Coker ran toward her in an attempt to keep her from leaving.  Homeowners told deputies that they believed someone had been in an RV on the property.  A search of the vehicle, that was beside the residence, proved futile but investigators heard a car running in the garage as they re-approached the home.  Epperly spotted a male inside the home near the patio door and later apprehended Lewis Coker hiding in a closet.

 “After she got away, Coker returned to the house and started ransacking the residence. He went into the garage and was loading up the owners truck with items from the house before officers arrived,” Epperly said in a news release.

Epperly says Coker, who has an extensive criminal history, is being held in the Barry County Jail on suspicion of burglary, tampering with a motor vehicle, stealing and possession of a controlled substance and false impersonation of a law enforcement officer.

He is expected to be arraigned sometime tomorrow.