Alabama man arrested on Stolen Valor, forgery charges

SHEFFIELD, Ala. (WHNT) -- The Sheffield Police Department has arrested and charged a man on "stolen valor" and forgery charges.

On Friday, November 27, police arrested and charged William Travis Tucker for lying about being a prisoner of war and reaping the benefits of those accolades.

“We received a complaint of stolen valor; we followed up on that complaint and discovered that he used a falsified document to obtain POW tags through our probate judge's office,” Sheffield Police Lt. Ray Terry said.

Terry said someone can say they have, for example, a Purple Heart or Silver Star, but once they use those accolades for personal gain, it becomes a criminal offense.

“He definitely did serve in the military but there's no record indicating he was a prisoner of war,” Terry said.

Terry said the grand jury indicted him for Stolen Valor and using a forged document to obtain the POW-status tags.