How A Phony Fed Fooled A Small Town

Fraudulent Law Enforcer Tells Katie Couric Illegal Arrests He Made Gave Him Adrenaline Rush, Sense Of Purpose

(CBS)  This story was first published on Nov. 2, 2008. It was updated on May 21, 2009.

Like many small towns across the country, Gerald, Mo. was struggling with a tiny police force and a big drug problem. Then a man, known as "Sgt. Bill," showed up.

Bill Jakob flashed a badge and announced his credentials: an undercover federal agent sent to clean up the town in a county with one of the highest number of methamphetamine labs in the country.

He quickly helped police round up dozens of suspects and was welcomed like a conquering hero. As Katie Couric first reported last November, it all seemed just a little too good to be true.

---

"I didn't just wake up one morning and decide I was Batman or Superman. I found myself in Gerald," Jakob says.

Jakob, driving his own undercover police car, arrived early last year in Gerald, a rural town so small there's only one traffic light for its 1,200 residents.

"I woke up everyday with the intention of, 'Hey, I'm really doin' some great things here.' And I fed off of it and I enjoyed it. And you know, I slept good at night. I really did. I thought, man, 'I'm putting drug dealers out of business,'" he tells Couric.

Jakob says making these arrests gave him an adrenaline rush. "But that isn't really the thing that I focused on, the most, was just every bust it was, it was a good bust."

No one shared that sentiment more than Ryan McCrary, the new police chief who was struggling to control a growing drug problem with only four cops. Now he had a big time agent with the "Multi-Jurisdictional Narcotics Task Force," doing surveillance around the town and rounding up suspects.

"Once everything started unfolding, he was the drug expert, pretty much, from the task force," McCrary recalls.

The police chief says it felt "pretty good" to actually have some back up from what appeared to be the federal government.

In two months, Jakob and Gerald police arrested about 20 people and, more often than not, Jakob says he got them to confess.

Mayor Otis Schulte told 60 Minutes the town was grateful. "A lot o' people in town were. They thought that things are getting done. We got some help. I mean, a small town, we have one police officer on at a shift and that's it," the mayor explains.

"So, in a way, for a period of time, Bill Jakob was like a guy on a white horse comin' in to save the day a bit?" Couric asks.

"To help out, yes," Schulte says.

"I was very effective," Jakob says. "I think part of it was the fact that they were out of their comfort zone. If you're used to dealing with a three-man or four-man police department out in the middle of nowhere in Gerald, Missouri, and all of a sudden you find yourself across the desk from a federal officer, that's intimidating."

But Jakob wasn't a fed, had never been a fed, and wasn't even a certified cop.

Bankrupt and unemployed, the closest he'd ever come to the feds was when he had worked as a security guard in the parking lot of the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis. But he was creative, and concocted an elaborate scheme to con the entire town of Gerald into believing he was an agent working with a federal task force.

Jakob says he told the police chief he worked for the "Multi-Jurisdictional Narcotics Task Force."

Asked how he came up with that, Jakob told Couric, "You know, actually it sounded good. I've heard that it was used in a movie."

That movie was "Beverly Hills Cop 2."

"I've seen that movie. Maybe I had it subconsciously in the back of my head," Jakob says.

He also got an official looking six-point star badge with the task force name on it from the Internet, as well as business cards with the Justice Department logo on them.

Jakob says it isn't hard to make a business card. "I had to have these things. I mean, I was becoming this person."

And soon he'd convinced the police chief to formally request his help from the Department of Justice: Jakob gave him a phony fax number and arranged for a female friend to answer the phone.

Why did he do it, considering he wasn't getting paid?

"I wanted to fit what they wanted me to be. They wanted my help and I wanted to help them. And so I thought, you know, 'Hey, if I can become this other person, and I can help these people, who am I hurting?'" Jakob asks.

"Even if it was against the law?" Couric asks.

"I was more concerned with the fact that it's against the law to be a drug dealer than it was to be against the law to pretend to be a cop," Jakob says.

"Everything just fell together perfectly for his little scheme to work," says Police Chief Ryan McCrary, who says he trusted Jakob.

[bobnjersey]

[But he wasn''t and it wasn''t the first time Jakob lied. Among other lies, the Army veteran said he had been injured in Iraq when he had never even been there. "I told a few lies in my life and I told one big one," says Jakob. "For me it wasn%u2019t about trying to pull something over on somebody%u2026.I knew what I was doing wasn%u2019t legal. But%u2026it isn%u2019t like I was out robbing people%u2026beating people%u2026I was arresting drug dealers," he tells Couric. ]

''what i did ... and how i did it was ok ... because in the end i busted some drug dealers''

if this isn''t ''ends justify means'' ... than nothing is. i''d say he has a job as a political operative ... i wonder which party he would fit into better.

why should it be any different for him ... when all the authorities that have been given responsibility over others uses this very same justification.

[bobgee_1999]

autumn987:

Really, my first inclination is to assume you are a skinny, acne-plagued, very sheltered, lonely, possibly handicapped goth girl in your early 20s, that this gibbering post of yours is a way of reaching out, and just ignore it. But there''s something pathological involved, isn''t there? Let me offer you some help. First off, take your time and proofread this junk. You keep hitting "t" instead of "r." Also, plurals that end in "y" should usually end in "ies." Third, obscurity does not imply depth. It merely implies you have nothing to say.

[magoo2u1]

"Yet nobody bothers to see how much he accomplished with his busts. Too bad nosy reporters had to intervene"
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Are you serious? Do you really want untrained, inexperienced people running around waving guns in people''s faces? Aren''t there enough instances where trained officers shoot innocent people without having every bozo looking for an "adrenaline rush" out there gunning people down? You will change your tune when you, or someone you know, spends time in jail or the hospital because of one of your "heros".

[magoo2u1]

I think the best approach for someone like autumn987 is to ingnore them. Gibberish does not deserve recognition.

[bobnjersey]

[Yet nobody bothers to see how much he accomplished with his busts. Too bad nosy reporters had to intervene. Maybe some of the scum he took off the street would have remained in jail instead.]
[Posted by xentpro at 04:20 PM : Oct 30, 2008]

it doesn''t matter what he accomplished ... because what he was doing was illegal. multiple people lost their jobs because this moron misrepresented himself. i hope they all sue him for lost wages ... and bury him in debt indefinitely.

maybe the people he busted were doing good things ... despite their use of, or connection to drugs.

[cockamammy]

This a perfect example of what our immoral War on Drugs has led to: A perverse rationale that has no shame about destroying lives. Just imagine how many legitimate police officers who engage in this form of behavior everyday. Unlike this criminal, they get away with this kind of cruelty all the time. I can''t imagine how a police officer can be proud of themselves in this country. When you enforce immoral laws, you are thus immoral. They and the criminal lawmakers of this country are the reason so many have suffered over the 30 years. They are the reason why a generation of American children have been raised without mothers and fathers. They are the reason why our prisons are over filled with non-violent drug offenders. Shame on this country and shame on the people who have allowed this to happen.

[ludvig1-2009]

I''m familiar with the area as I was doubled up with a girl when a friend dumped me off with a friend of his and I ended up going out with a gal from the town. I now live in California and my respect for law enforcement has not grown any at all. I went home to Mo. to visit my parents and had my car searched twice in four days by the MoHP as I had Cal. plates so must be a drug dealer. In the Cal. town I live in now, my doc told me to lose weight or get diabetes, so I started walking and riding a bike, getting my pic taken for riding a bike, having a decoy car put in my walking path trying to get me to steal it, being spied on when I walked laps around the park having them move their car and hide elsewhere when I walked in their direction and having a bag labelled ''Medical" dropped perfectly centered on my driveway while they parked a block down the street where they could keep an eye on it. Maybe they wanted to knock my door down and shoot my basset hound in the back the way they shot the mayor''s lab in Maryland. My bro in law who is a citizen of another country was robbed by Chicago policemen. He said "You can make money at this" and went back to his home country and became a cop inspired by American justice. Signed - Retired Nuclear engineer and 13 gallon blood donor with references like the VP of Marathon Oil, an aircraft carrier commander, a Shipyard commander (who lent me his car when I had a date and no car). Cops suck.

[ludvig1-2009]

Oh yeah, I might add the following on the local constabulaory versus the free press. Thank God for news media. The local police in this Cal. town in plain clothes went into a bar and basically rousted the people in the bar. A retired Air Force Lt. Col was sitting in the bar and told the local press (No not the Rah Rah Rah Manteca Bulletin but instead their competitor the Sun Times or some such name that the cops did not identify themselves, although they claim they did so. So the reporter watched the video to see what transpired and concluded that he saw no indication of them ID''ing themselves and said one cop grabbed a guy by the collar and took him outside and when his wife tried to follow him out another cop slugged her. Later the Manteca, CA. cop according to the paper told the DA to press charges against the husband for slugging his wife. According to the paper the cop was not fired, so Manteca Cops have no honor code of "I will no lie cheat or steal, nor will I tolerate among us those who do." So if they get on a witness stand and I''m on a jury I guess I''ll presume their lying. Only logical thing to do.

[swingset4u]

That smug look on this punks face is gonna get him smacked! He best move to another state because anyone who recognises him will want to do more harm than good to him. He thinks he''s a rock star. He is a criminal. Investigate him for all the unsolved rapes by people claiming to be law enforcement.

[jehovahwtnss]

POSTED BY cockamammy

"This a perfect example of what our immoral War on Drugs has led to: A perverse rationale that has no shame about destroying lives. Just imagine how many legitimate police officers who engage in this form of behavior everyday. Unlike this criminal, they get away with this kind of cruelty all the time. I can''''t imagine how a police officer can be proud of themselves in this country. When you enforce immoral laws, you are thus immoral. They and the criminal lawmakers of this country are the reason so many have suffered over the 30 years. They are the reason why a generation of American children have been raised without mothers and fathers. They are the reason why our prisons are over filled with non-violent drug offenders. Shame on this country and shame on the people who have allowed this to happen."

-----------------------------------------------------
cockamammy is right, rank and file Americans have been complicit in the evolution of a pernicious quasi police state. This is demonstrated by the fact that it now has one of the highest per capita prison populations in the world. Are Americans truly among the most criminal people in the world ? I think not!!

[longtree-2009]

jakob, the criminal mutant, should be in prison and not being interviewed by couric. crime pays, sure does, in this country. local police were dunder heads for never checking and validating credentials. big dummies. but jakob should be in the slammer for a long, long time. but not in this country, crime pays.

[slim1h2o]

They are the reason why our prisons are over filled with non-violent drug offenders. Shame on this country and shame on the people who have allowed this to happen."


cockamammy is right, rank and file Americans have been complicit in the evolution of a pernicious quasi police state. This is demonstrated by the fact that it now has one of the highest per capita prison populations in the world. Are Americans truly among the most criminal people in the world ? I think not!!

Posted by JehovahWtnss at 02:54 AM : Oct 31, 2008

I agree with both posts. There is a cop up in NY that was caught pilfering tastykakes with his free coffee. The had practice giving Law enforcemment free coffee, but this guy wanted more than just his free coffee. I doubt this thug will do jailtime. Which a regular street thug would have been sent away for at least 3-5 yrs........

[slim1h2o]

Here is a link to the aforementioned tastykakes stealing cop. This country has become a police state, through the War on Drugs fiasco.

[slim1h2o]

oops,,forgot the link......


http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2008/10/officer_pilfered_pastries_with.html

[honestabe8]

I hope this cop wannabe is brutally sodomized in jail.

[remant]

Too bad there''s no penalty for impersonating a reporter...

[sunflower581]

Although the story was interesting, no one should have interviewed the con man. By doing that, he was given the ultimate of what he wanted. Attention. Tell the story, but don''t even show his picture. Don''t give him what he wanted, that should go along with his punishment.

[jackschott]

Its pretty hard to be a phony cop from a wheel chair. I''d hate to see that guy get shot in each knee with a .357

[smurfcrusher]

Slimeball and attention ***. He gets what he deserves. He did far more harm than good - basically all these alleged drug dealers get a pass, and grounds for multi-million dollar lawsuits. He was their greatest ally. Maybe some of them hired him as part of a scheme!

[upandover2]

To SnarkySnark: Seriously? Sarah Palin? You are actually comparing the current Gov. of Alaska to this conman?

As a person who lives in the same county where this incident occurred, I am more than a little nervous about the safety of my community. How could they very people who are supposed to be protecting us be so fooled?

P.S. Based on Katie Couric''s journalist skills, she should be *** happy to have a job at all!

[upandover2]

To SnarkySnark: Seriously? Sarah Palin? You are actually comparing the current Gov. of Alaska to this conman?

As a person who lives in the same county where this incident occurred, I am more than a little nervous about the safety of my community. How could they very people who are supposed to be protecting us be so fooled?

P.S. Based on Katie Couric''s journalist skills, she should be *** happy to have a job at all!

[imcnerney]

Sergeant Bill should be given a medal for what he did, not prosecuted.

[hangbush]

America is a country that respect the rule of law. People like Bill Jakob whose ulterior motive is nothing more than to make himself feel good, (and possibly pocketing cracks and cokes off the "drug dealers" he arrested) is ruining America. How many phonies are in America right now? We don''t have to look far but just to turn into TV to see the biggest phoney of them all, GEORGE BUSH, who ruined the economy of america, the respect that we had around the world, and our military.

There is only one thing everyone should do against PHONEY. ARREST THEM. SAY NO TO THEM. Do NOT make a hero out of them. They are NOTHING but WORTHLESS CON MEN.

[vjenkins13]

How a phony Senator from Illinois fooled an entire nation!

[bailmeout1]

Phoney reporter Couric interviews this guy? hehehe

[hissteps4u]

d7767w You stated You have not seen the last of her because she will be the first female President of this country.

How ignorant can you be? Seems about as Ignorant as Palin herself when it comes to constitutionality concerns and some basic knowledge of government.

Palin is nothing more than a sound bite for the Media and a flash of a lightbulb for some ignorant folks seeking a female alternative to Clinton.

She may be a Governor but she is whoafully ignorant of Basic Civics and how the Federal government works.

She must have missed those classes in High school.

it is hard to believe that she could have even energised the republican base for the few weeks she has been around except that mcCain was doing to poorly anyone could have done a better Job than he has.

I am a republican who voted for Obama and Palin will be relegated to obsecurity in two days time and go sulking back to Alaska.

She may think she has the stuff to run but the American Public is not fooled and would not support her...

[cpforest]

Bill Jakob is not a master of deception. He''s just a nobody, like many of us who just wanted to be somebody really badly, unfortunately he will pay a very heavy price for it.

[rudy654-2009]

Gee, another "Joe the Plumber." But Bill Jacob at least won''t get away with it.

[rudy654-2009]

When the election is over Palin will either be VP of this country or still be the Governor of Alaska, I hope she remembers the people who have given her a hard time and extracts revenge.

You have not seen the last of her because she will be the first female President of this country.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by d7767w at 10:58 PM

I think you should leave this country. You want her to get revenge?? How about if Obama is elected and he get revenge too??? Oooooh, now you''re scared, ***. You don''t belong in this country. Go to Somalia where they stone thirteen year old girls. Those are your kind of people.

[W.W. Terry]

Maybe he can get together with members of ACORN and maybe even Obama in jail for spending over 100 million dollars in illegal foreign donations for his sleazy poilitical campaign. Yea, they can all sit in a corner, drinking pruno and smoking roll your owns while comparing their con jobs. Caio! wwterry

[dewbug2]

So, what''s wrong with rounding up and jailing a bunch of Beasy Slastard druggies? The guy should get a medal....he''s doing more than the real "cops" and judges are doing...Also, now what happens?.... do the Beasy Slastards at ACLU get their drug dealing/ manufacturing azzes out of jail at taxpayer''s expense? of course!

[honestabe8]

If someone had taken his busting down their door to be an invasion, and had blown a hole in him with a shotgun (after all, self defense is important), does that qualify as assaulting a police officer? He may have announced himself as such, but that would have been false.

[honestabe8]

dewbug: if their arrest was false, then they do not belong in jail, no matter how much good they may have done.

[CMancos]

DID YOU WAKE UP DUMP OR ARE YOU JUST PLAIN STUPID?

PALIN IS REPUBLICAN PUKE nothing more nothing less!

WE NEED MORE BRIDGES TO NO WHERE YOU OUGHT TO JOIN HER IN QUICK SAND BATH!

Posted by ms1-1-1

You sound like a twelve year old pre-pubescent girl, grow up.

[piercetheval]

...cue to Alfonso Bedoya: "Badges?...we are the Federales Senor''...We ain''t got no badges...We don''t need no badges...I ain''t got to show you no stinkin'' badges!"

...have fun in prison ***!

[piercetheval]

If someone had taken his busting down their door to be an invasion, and had blown a hole in him with a shotgun (after all, self defense is important), does that qualify as assaulting a police officer? He may have announced himself as such, but that would have been false.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by honestabe8

There is a similiar precendent in Mich. [I believe it was Mich.] where the cops burst into the wrong house to find a fellow sitting on his couch in his own living room about to ''light one up''.
The cops arrested him and the courts let it ''stick''.
...basically giving law enforcement a ''green light'' to kick down anyones'' door at anytime to see what you/they may be up to....SCARY, isn''t it?

[ddaymichael]

How many phonies are in America right now?
Posted by HangBush

****************

How many indeed? We can''t allow just anybody to go around putting hard-working meth dealers out of business. Who will pay off the REAL trained law enforcement officials to just sit around complaining that they are understaffed?

And fooling them into confessing to their crimes?

NO FAIR!

For the past eight years, the country has been run into the ground by sleazy low-lifes who are pretending to be public servents when all they do is help themselves.

Hopefully, after tomorrow, most of them will be voted out of office.

Obama''s first order of business shold be the arrest and prosecution of the Bush/Cheney Gang before they all abscond to extradition-proof Dubai with their blood-stained billions (or is that hundreds of billions?)

None of this treasonous scum should be allowed to die in bed.

Remember...our current Deserter-in-Chief is a firm believer in capital punishment.

[fabrat1]

I think they''re just jealous because he did something they couldn''t..... and it does make them look pretty bad since he had no real training but yet he could get the drug dealers off the streets.

[piercetheval]

...might I suggest you all ''Google'' "Operation Falcon"


The Bush administration has carried out three massive sweeps in the
last two years, rolling up more than 30,000 minor crooks and
criminals, without as much as a whimper of protest from the public.





...and don''t forget the
newly-built Halliburton detention centers. This should be a red flag
for anyone who cares at all about human rights, civil liberties, or
simply saving his own skin.


Operation Falcon was allegedly the brainchild of Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales and his counterpart in the US Marshal%u2019s office,
(Director) Ben Reyna.
wing Washington think tanks where fantasies of autocratic government
have a long history. The name, Falcon, is an acronym for %u201CFederal and
Local Cops Organized Nationally.%u201D It relates to the more than 960
state, local and federal agencies which are directly involved in the
administration%u2019s expansive criminal dragnets.


Typically, law enforcement agencies are protective of their own turf
and wary of outside intervention. The Falcon program overrides these
concerns by streamlining the information-sharing processes and setting
up a chain-of-

command structure that radiates from the Justice Department. This
removes many of the traditional obstacles to agency interface. It also
relocates the levers of power to Washington.

[swingset4u]

He is no bettr than the drug dealers he falsly arrested.He was breaking and entering and terrorizing people for his own selfish need to feel important.

[nothappyatall]

"Now, the town of Gerald is paying the price. The police chief and two other officers were fired. And because of Jakob''s involvement, no one he arrested has been charged. Instead, many of them are suing the town for tens of millions of dollars for violating their civil rights."

LOL sounds like that chief is so stupid he shouldnt have been a cop let alone chief, he never once made any calls to verify anything?? it took a NEWSPAPER reporter to bring the whole thing crashing down??
Im also shocked a judge would issue search warrants to a stranger over the PHONE and also not check!

[piercetheval]

We need to re-look at our evidence laws. Regardless of how the evidence against the criminals was obtained, if it was real and sufficient for a conviction the criminals should be prosecuted. As it is, they''''ll all end up richer then they would have if he hadn''''t don what he did. There seems to be something wrong with that. (Notice I said if the evidence was real - not planted or fake)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by bob5ford at 09:15 AM : Nov 03, 2008

...illegally obtained evidence is just that...ILLEGAL!
...due to the recent ruling in Mich., Cops can kick your door in anytime you like...what''s in your pipe?

...the only ones mentioned he got anything on were ''Pot smokers"...come on...get real be serious!

[hannity2012]

HOW A PHONEY OBAMA FOOLED A NATION

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdi4onAQBWQ

(

VIDEO ABOVE - OBAMA OWN WORDS ON DESTROYING COAL INDUSTRY and Having Americans pay more for electricity!!!

watching this video above could get you arrested under Obama Presidency, view with caution, It has gotten me banned 3 times on cbs, but i wont give up and will never give up even if Obama elected we must fight his economy socialist destroying plans)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ms1-1-1]

Monday. 03 November ''08

GREAT IDEA EW EW GREAT IDEA

Number One: Let''s shave his armpits.
Number Two: Let''s shave his legs.
Number Three: Let''s apply ever so gingerly lip gloss
Number Four: Let''s have him work for Bi-Sexual Brothels in the State of Nevada and get HIV.

Problem solved ! ! ! %u263A

[nobama4]

"One was, we walked up to a guy''s house, pulled it the driveway, he runs out the front door carrying a bucket full of marijuana and pipes, yells, ''Cops,'' turns around and runs back into the house. I don''t think you have to have a warrant to go back in the house after him," Jakob says.

"I think you do," Couric remarks.





So Couric is dumb.

[ms1-1-1]

Monday. 03 November ''08

RE: Posted by newster1 at 08:46 AM : Nov 03, 2008
+ report abuse
Let me see if I''''ve got this right...

Acting like a Fed agent, this guy cleaned up a town "in a county with one of the highest number of methamphetamine labs in the country".

That means...the real Feds have chosen NOT to clean up this county.

Why not?
- - - -

The so called FBI Federal Burea of Investigations is RECEIVING THEIR PAYCHECKS FROM the same organization the United States Government. SO yesterdays news.

Their is not a single need to clean up the *** after all they created the "need" for it in the first place. When I went to school they had under cover FBI agents posing as high school student not only were the so called FBI agents selling narcotics they were distributing the stuff and collecting profits like you have no clue.

I suggest you read about the new "DRUG" highway posed to run through Central United States moving narcotics from Canada through Nebraska, to Mexico all aproved by Congress by the way and already in progress in case you have not noticed.

[ms1-1-1]

Monday. 03 November ''08

RE: Posted by hannity2012 at 09:34 AM : Nov 03, 2008

Let''s be serious, the so called LAW ENFORCEMENT in Gerald, Mo is in dire need of EDUCATION hello ... what a *** HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER hires and DOES NOT RUN A BACKGROUND ... YEAH GOOD ONE ... they should hire Mexican Illegals now can you just picture that one? They would have caught on quick just based on what color is your skin let me see oh, you must be Mexican your Brown equals do not hire, oh let me see this guy is white HIRE HIRE HIRE duh idiots ...

Where do you get these people? Did anyone graduate from oh lets say kindergarten? DUH ? ? ? ?

[ms1-1-1]

Monday. 03 November ''08

RE POST: Posted by tootall1014 at 08:52 AM : Nov 03, 2008
+ report abuse
"Now, the town of Gerald is paying the price. The police chief and two other officers were fired. And because of Jakob''''s involvement, no one he arrested has been charged. Instead, many of them are suing the town for tens of millions of dollars for violating their civil rights."

LOL sounds like that chief is so stupid he shouldnt have been a cop let alone chief, he never once made any calls to verify anything?? it took a NEWSPAPER reporter to bring the whole thing crashing down??
Im also shocked a judge would issue search warrants to a stranger over the PHONE and also not check!

- - -

AMEN ! ! ! THANK YOU ! ! ! IDIOT RETARDS ! ! ! !

[markangeloo]

Well at least he wasn''t trying to be a mortage
broker, a bank loan officer or a forex trader !!!
We had enough people playing they were those.

[sharednotion]

I don''t think there''s any excuse for the local police chief not checking on this man''s claim of being a federal agent. No reasonable person who is actually a federal agent, arriving unexpectedly in a small town, going to the local police station, and claiming he had come to help them fight drug crime in their community, would be the slightest bit offended if the local police chief politely explained to him, that as a matter of policy, the local department must, first, directly contact the FBI to see check his credentials. And, it also seems to me, NO responsible loval chief of police would FAIL to do this FBI check BEFORE proceeding to work with this newcomer to town.