Maybe there's a reason...

...the crime stats are through the roof...

Police in the Windy City are red faced after a 14-year-old boy infiltrated the force, posed as a cop, and actually got assigned to a squad car as a rookie before anyone caught on.

The kid managed to secure a replica of a real police uniform, showed up at a local station on Saturday and even got assigned to a squad car.

To make matters worse, he was on patrol for five hours with a partner before anyone figured out what was going on.

What gave him away? A crucial detail. His get-up was missing a star that's supposed to be on the regulation uniform.

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