Police impersonator complaint sparks Halifax probe: ‘Refused to produce a badge when asked’

Mounties have caught up with a Halifax man who allegedly impersonated a police officer, owns several guns, threatened to “pull a trigger” on his ex-wife and had “amassed hundreds if not thousands of rounds of ammunition since the COVID pandemic.”

Tantallon RCMP fielded a complaint on June 26, 2023, about a man impersonating a police officer outside the Beechville Irving on St. Margarets Bay Road.

Cathy Campbell and her husband, David Lapointe, were assembling advertising flyers in their car parked at the gas station “when she was approached by an unknown male who claimed he was a police officer but refused to produce a badge when asked,” RCMP Const. Jeffrey Mahar said in a search warrant application in the case.

The stranger “started talking to them” from a grey Dodge Caravan, Mahar said, noting the man was about five-foot-seven with dark hair down past his shoulders and a goatee.

“(He) claimed to be a detective with Halifax police but would not produce a badge, despite being asked multiple times,” the investigator said in information to obtain a warrant filed at Halifax provincial court.

‘Letting them go’

“The unknown male stated he was letting them go this time and departed in his van.”

The couple got the plate number and reported it to the RCMP. Investigators plugged that into a police database, learning the Dodge was registered jointly to Catherine and Philip Krakowski.

Philip Boguslaw Krakowski’s photo from Nova Scotia’s Registry of Motor Vehicles “appeared to match the description provided by Campbell,” Mahar said, noting she was unable to pick him out of a photo lineup but Lapointe did just that.

When Mounties tracked down Catherine Krakowski on July 11, 2023, they learned the Dodge “was a former matrimonial vehicle” which she’d once shared with her ex-husband.

“She left (Philip) Krakowski on June 10, 2020, and departed with her children,” Mahar said, noting the van’s been in his sole possession ever since.

Philip Krakowski, 35, has ignored multiple family court orders to switch the registration into his sole ownership, his ex told police.

“He has failed to do so as she continues to receive parking tickets,” Mahar said.

“She has had nothing to do with the vehicle and has not stepped foot inside it since she left,” said the investigator.

‘Suffers from delusions’

She told police Philip Krakowski “has suffered from alcohol and drug addictions since she met him in high school in the early 2000s.”

He also “suffers from delusions and severe mental health issues,” Krakowski’s ex told police.

She wasn’t aware of him posing as a cop but told police that “he often tells people he was in the military despite the fact that he was never in the regular forces,” Mahar wrote.

“She would not be surprised if (Philip) Krakowski were to portray himself as a police officer.”

Philip Krakowski was a reservist for the Toronto Scottish Regiment from the time he was 16 until his mid-20s, Mahar said.

Complaints back to 2021

His ex told RCMP investigators that she’s “reported to police in the last several years that (Philip) Krakowski has an illegal handgun along with live ammunition,” Mahar said, noting he was able to confirm that she’d had prior discussions with police about her ex as far back as 2021.

Catherine Krakowski handed over 20 rounds of live 9mm ammunition to police in November that her ex had left in their matrimonial home, which they had sold by that time.

“She has seen the illegal handgun which (Philip) Krakowski purchased online from an American supplier,” Mahar said.

“At the time (Philip) Krakowski purchased the gun he could get it if he was a member of a gun club, so he forged documentation to suggest he was a gun club member.”

She also told police he “has several shotguns and rifles.”

‘Stockpiled ammunition’

Philip Krakowski “has countless rounds of ammunition that he stockpiled during the COVID pandemic,” she told police.

“(Philip) Krakowski stockpiled ammunition instead of food.”

The search warrant application, written in late November, notes that the former couple still share a credit card and she received the statements.

“Recent transactions on a shared credit card reveal (Philip) Krakowski may have departed the country for Europe as there have been charges there,” Mahar said.

“She has expressed her sincere fear of (Philip) Krakowski and for the safety of herself and her children. She feels (Philip) Krakowski is very unstable and dangerous.”

The address on his driver’s licence is an apartment on Shirley Street in central Halifax.

His ex told Mounties that Krakowski “had been travelling but has now returned from out of country,” Mahar said.

“(Philip) Krakowski made thousands of dollars worth of transactions at the Atlantica Hotel located just a few blocks from his home, leading her to believe (Philip) Krakowski is in hiding.”

His name is still listed in the foyer directory of the Shirley Street apartment building.

“There is no reason (Philip) Krakowski should be staying elsewhere and the hotel he’s paying for is only a few blocks from his home,” his ex-wife told police, chalking that up to paranoia.

‘Very paranoid’

He’s “very paranoid and delusional due to his drug and alcohol use,” his ex told investigators, noting he “has never been co-operative with police.”

From what she knows, Krakowski had two shotguns, one rifle and one handgun. He bought the shotguns at Canadian Tire.

“The rifle has a dark wooden stain and has a black matte barrel and was standard issue Russian WW2. The handgun is a Walther P99 replica, a functioning firearm, which he purchased online from the U.S.”

She told Mahar that “Krakowski has a ludicrous amount of ammunition; he has red shotgun rounds and gold rifle rounds with a pink/red tip.”

She believed he would hide things if he thought someone was looking for them.

‘Guns lined up’

Alarmingly, Mahar’s search warrant application references Nova Scotia’s April 2020 mass shooting where a denturist dressed up as a Mountie murdered 22 people, including a pregnant woman.

“(Philip) Krakowski had all of his guns lined up during the Portapique, N.S., incident with them loaded and safeties off,” his ex told police.

“(Philip) Krakowski was walking around their neighbourhood with loaded guns as if he was patrolling.”

He “was threatening that if anyone came on their property at all he would shoot them,” she told police, noting that he “sent a photo of himself at the time holding a loaded gun pointing out their window to a family group chat. (Philip) Krakowski was on a lot of drugs at that time and had ordered a lot of mushrooms.”

His ex gave police photos of Philip Krakowski holding a handgun, and another where he’s “holding a rifle pointed towards the front window of his matrimonial home,” Mahar said.

‘Train full of explosives’

“Recently, (Philip) Krakowski is alleged to have been driving drunk and made a threat to her that he would ‘pull a trigger on her and send a train full of explosives.’”

Police were able to determine that Krakowski holds restricted and non-restricted possession and acquisition licences. The address on those is the Krakowski matrimonial home in Middle Sackville, which the former couple sold last July.

“He has two restricted firearms registered to him,” Mahar said, noting that those are a Norinco NP29 and a Norinco TT Olympia, both semi-automatic handguns.

On Nov. 28, 2023, U-Haul confirmed for police that Philip Krakowski was renting a storage unit at the company’s Bluewater Road facility in Bedford.

While on the stand at a family court hearing, he admitted that’s where he keeps his guns, Mahar said.

The investigator convinced a justice of the peace to grant a search warrant for the storage unit.

‘Forged documents’

“I believe that (Philip) Krakowski has illegally obtained a handgun from the United States and has forged documents to complete this and other transactions,” Mahar said.

During a Nov. 30 search of the storage unit, police seized a Russian bolt-action rifle and a second rifle of an unknown make, a Norinco NP29 semi-automatic handgun with empty magazines, a Mossy Oak bow with arrows, a rifle bayonet, shotgun rounds and other ammunition.

Philip Krakowski checked out of the Atlantica Hotel on Dec. 19.

Nobody answered the door at his Shirley Street apartment when a reporter rang the buzzer this week, and he did not respond to a telephone message.

More weapons seized 

Police searched the apartment just before 5 p.m. on Dec. 13.

“During the search of the apartment, officers located and seized a .22-calibre handgun (Norinco TT Olympia), a 12-gauge shotgun (Remington), a .22-calibre rifle (Mossberg) and ammunition,” RCMP Cpl. Guillaume Tremblay said Wednesday in an email.

While police couldn’t identify Krakowski by name as he hasn’t been arraigned yet, they confirmed they arrested a 35-year-old man at the Shirley Street apartment on the same day they searched the place.

He’s facing charges of impersonating a peace officer, pointing a firearm at another person and several other charges regarding the unsafe storage and transportation of firearms.

He was released on the promise to appear Feb. 14 in Halifax provincial court.