Seattle police detectives are investigating recent incidents in Volunteer Park in which someone is pretending to be a police officer.

 In both cases, victims reported the incident to real officers.

The first incident occurred on Dec. 19, around 7:30 p.m.

The victim told police he was walking through Volunteer Park and needed to use the restroom. While in the restroom, a man began to casually talk to him and said he and his partner were conducting an undercover operation inside the park, and that the victim would need to stay out of not only Volunteer Park, but Woodland Park and the Arboretum as well.

The victim believed that the man was an undercover police officer and allowed him to remove his wallet and look at his driver's license.

The following day at work, the victim noticed one of his credit cards was missing and when he returned home that evening, he discovered several calls from his bank alerting him to possible fraudulent activity. After he deactivated his card, he contacted the police to report the incident that occurred in the park.

The police impersonator was described as white, about 40 years old, scruffy looking, with short reddish-brown hair.  He was wearing a green knee-length nylon jacket and a brown sweater.

The second incident occurred on Wednesday this week in which a victim was approached by a man in the restroom in Volunteer Park and was able to convince the victim that he was an officer.  The victim allowed the man to remove the wallet from his pocket.

 When the suspect asked the victim to give him a ride up the street, the victim declined and the man handed back the victim's wallet, telling him to get out of the area because they were conducting an undercover operation.

The victim left the area, drove to work, and then discovered that cash was missing from his wallet. The victim then saw officers nearby on a traffic stop at 10th Avenue and Pine Street and walked over to report the crime.

Officers went to the park to search for the suspect, but could not locate him.

The man in that incident is described as white, 40 years old, 5 feet 5 inches tall, 150 pounds, with blond, longish hair.  He was dressed in dark clothing and it appeared that he had a gold badge attached to his waistband or belt.

 Anyone with information about the incidents or who was a victim of such an incident and has not yet reported it is asked to contact the Seattle Police Department Robbery Unit at 206-684-5535.

 Police said if a non-uniformed person is identifying themselves as a Seattle police officer and attempting to stop or detain you and you have doubts about their authenticity, request a uniformed officer or a supervisor to respond to the scene or simply call 911 and report the circumstances.