Man wearing Army Combat Uniform without name tape accused of Stolen Valor at Florida bar
A guy decked out in military garb at a Florida bar got called out by another patron who accused him of pretending to be an infantryman so he could pick up chicks.
In footage shared by Eric Coins, a young man in civilian clothes quizzes a swaggering older man wearing fatigues at a watering hole in Sunrise, near Miami, in the latest alleged case of stolen valor — false claims about time served in the military.
The uniformed man gets aggressive after being asked where he did his boot camp, why his uniform doesn’t have a name badge and whether he has a Geneva Conventions Identification Card in the profanity-laced video.
The two-minute video starts with the man claiming to have served with the 10th Mountain Division infantry but struggling to name where he completed training, mumbling that he did it “in North Carolina.”
But some women in the group sitting next to the uniformed man take up cause for him, asking the questioner if he had ever served. The group laughs when the questioner admits he’s never been in the military.
Not to be deterred, the young man asks about the lack of an identifying name badge on the uniform.
One woman intervenes to ask the questioner why he doesn’t just “get it over with” and perform oral sex on the older man. The guy wearing military wear high fives her and attempts to account for the missing piece of his supposed uniform.
“I took it out,” the guy says. “You know why I took it out? I don’t want nobody to know my name.”
A woman tries to “call time out,” but the older man moves at his questioner.
“Are you a cop?” he asks. His questioner reminds him that the U.S. Army Infantry School is located at Fort Benning, Ga.
“You realize what you’re doing is a federal offense, right?” the young man asks, later querying about a basic ID card required of all active duty personnel. “Where’s your Geneva Conventions Identification Card?”
What’s wrong with this m-----f-----?” the enraged guy in uniform says, putting up his dukes. “Put your drink away and I’ll tell you. Please try me right now.”
But other people move in to separate the pair. It wasn’t immediately apparent whether there will be any charges in connection with the incident.
But Coins wrote on YouTube that he and his friends observed the man “trying to pick up girls and get sympathy drinks,” so they decided to act.
“We asked a few basic questions which threw him off and [he] couldn't answer even where he got his infantry training or even boot camp for that matter,” he wrote.
“[H]e's a scum to America and we couldn't let that fly.”
The confrontation follows another filmed back-and-forth last month near MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, in which a veteran accosted a panhandler who claimed military service. In another recent case, a sergeant exposed a purported Army Ranger in a Pennsylvania mall last November.
In 2013, President Obama signed a revision of the Stolen Valor Act, which criminalizes a person who “with intent to obtain money, property, or other tangible benefit, fraudulently holds oneself out to be a recipient of a decoration or medal,” according to the law.
The Supreme Court had ruled an earlier 2005 law violated free speech rights, so Congress added the provision about using the false claims for material benefit, ABC News reported at the time. Violators of the law face fines or up to a year in prison.
In footage shared by Eric Coins, a young man in civilian clothes quizzes a swaggering older man wearing fatigues at a watering hole in Sunrise, near Miami, in the latest alleged case of stolen valor — false claims about time served in the military.
The uniformed man gets aggressive after being asked where he did his boot camp, why his uniform doesn’t have a name badge and whether he has a Geneva Conventions Identification Card in the profanity-laced video.
The two-minute video starts with the man claiming to have served with the 10th Mountain Division infantry but struggling to name where he completed training, mumbling that he did it “in North Carolina.”
But some women in the group sitting next to the uniformed man take up cause for him, asking the questioner if he had ever served. The group laughs when the questioner admits he’s never been in the military.
Not to be deterred, the young man asks about the lack of an identifying name badge on the uniform.
One woman intervenes to ask the questioner why he doesn’t just “get it over with” and perform oral sex on the older man. The guy wearing military wear high fives her and attempts to account for the missing piece of his supposed uniform.
“I took it out,” the guy says. “You know why I took it out? I don’t want nobody to know my name.”
A woman tries to “call time out,” but the older man moves at his questioner.
“Are you a cop?” he asks. His questioner reminds him that the U.S. Army Infantry School is located at Fort Benning, Ga.
“You realize what you’re doing is a federal offense, right?” the young man asks, later querying about a basic ID card required of all active duty personnel. “Where’s your Geneva Conventions Identification Card?”
What’s wrong with this m-----f-----?” the enraged guy in uniform says, putting up his dukes. “Put your drink away and I’ll tell you. Please try me right now.”
But other people move in to separate the pair. It wasn’t immediately apparent whether there will be any charges in connection with the incident.
But Coins wrote on YouTube that he and his friends observed the man “trying to pick up girls and get sympathy drinks,” so they decided to act.
“We asked a few basic questions which threw him off and [he] couldn't answer even where he got his infantry training or even boot camp for that matter,” he wrote.
“[H]e's a scum to America and we couldn't let that fly.”
The confrontation follows another filmed back-and-forth last month near MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, in which a veteran accosted a panhandler who claimed military service. In another recent case, a sergeant exposed a purported Army Ranger in a Pennsylvania mall last November.
In 2013, President Obama signed a revision of the Stolen Valor Act, which criminalizes a person who “with intent to obtain money, property, or other tangible benefit, fraudulently holds oneself out to be a recipient of a decoration or medal,” according to the law.
The Supreme Court had ruled an earlier 2005 law violated free speech rights, so Congress added the provision about using the false claims for material benefit, ABC News reported at the time. Violators of the law face fines or up to a year in prison.