Police impersonate doctors to warn residents about imposters

Turkish police have launched a campaign against imposters by introducing themselves as family doctors in the southeastern province of Gaziantep following a series of elaborate robberies in other parts of the country. Law enforcement officers in Gaziantep’s Sultanbeyli and Şehitkamil districts visited 100 houses in doctor’s outfits to test how likely local citizens were to accept medical orders from unidentified “medical personnel.”

Some 100 house owners reportedly invited the disguised police into their house without asking their identity. The police asked the people to swallow an ordinary candy telling that it was medicine; 86 owners reportedly swallowed the medicine, which they believed to be a “blood pressure drug,” without questioning the situation.



The other 14 called police due to their suspicions. After this, the same police officers visited the same houses again to admit that they were not doctors. The police also showed their identities and told people not to believe everyone at their door and not to invite everyone in without questioning them.

The officers further warned the public on the dangers of taking drugs from people they do not know. Earlier this year, three suspects in Istanbul who had been gaining access to people’s homes by impersonating doctors before injecting citizens with sedatives and stealing their possessions were apprehended by police.