SHEFFIELD, Ala. — 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,” Lt. Ray Terry said.

Terry said lying about something like that devalues what servicemen and women have done for the country.

“They went and fought and earned those accolades,” Terry said. “This person has used that false accolade to obtain things of value.”

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 incidents like this happen more often than law enforcement is made aware, adding very few people take the initiative in reporting them out of fear.

“It went through the grand jury in Colbert County,” Terry said.

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

Tucker is currently out on bond and an arraignment hearing has been set for December 3 at 9 a.m.

The investigation is ongoing and anyone with additional information on Tucker is urged to contact Lt. Ray Terry at raterry@sheffieldpolice.org or (256) 386-5630.