He wanted a promotion. So he decided to impersonate the mayor, cops say
People have done worse things for a promotion.
A Polk County man is accused of impersonating the mayor and forging his school transcripts as well as his professional licenses in order to be hired and later promoted, according to the Lakeland Police Department.
Police say John Bretz, 53, began working for the city of Lakeland as a mechanical engineer nearly eight years ago. He had been promoted twice.
Bretz resigned from his post Oct. 7 amid the police investigation, the arrest report says.
“In 2012, we did background checks, but he was very good at what he did, at defrauding,” Kevin Cook, the city of Lakeland communications director, told Fox 13.
Cook added that human resources staff didn’t have any suspicions until they began using third-party background investigators in 2017.
The company began checking Bretz’s credentials in mid-September after he was conditionally offered the plant manager job, which would have been his second promotion. A week after the verification process began, human resources received an email from Lakeland Mayor Bill Mutz asking to expedite Bretz’s hiring, according to the report.
There was just one issue:
“Mutz stated that he does not know John Bretz, and that he does not have a personal email account of wbillmutz@yahoo.com,” the detective wrote.
As the background check continued, the discoveries became even more alarming.
The verification check on Bretz revealed that the institution he listed as his stated alma mater, Southern Illinois University, had no record of him ever attending the school.
He had also claimed that he had been licensed in Illinois, but the investigators reported: “The State of Illinois has no record of anyone named John Henry Bretz ever being licensed in Illinois.”
Over the years, Bretz made nearly $1 million as an employee of the city, the report continued.
These discoveries led police to arrest Bretz Wednesday on charges of criminal use of personal identification and scheme to defraud more than $50,000. Jail records show he posted his $16,000 bond later that day.
This story was originally published October 31, 2019 at 5:39 PM.
