NYC Police Throw Navy SEAL Into Psych Ward for Claiming...He's a SEAL

A Virginia man claimed to be a Navy SEAL to talk his way out of a gun possession arrest on Thursday, and the New York Police Department committed him  to a psych ward thinking his claims of elite military status were the rantings of a lunatic.

Turns out the guy was in fact an elite Navy SEAL.

But as the New York Post put it, telling the NYPD "I'm in an elite military unit, you can't arrest me," doesn't help much when the city's draconian gun laws are at issue.

Twenty-nine-year-old Shaun Day was on a leave from his duty as a Navy SEAL duty when cops nailed him for running a red light in Manhattan, New York on Thursday.

NYPD officers searched Day's pickup truck and found a 9mm semiautomatic pistol and three magazines full of ammo.

During the arrest, police claim Day was babbling incoherently and repeatedly claimed that he was an elite Navy SEAL with “top- secret clearance,” but was unable to provide any documentation for police.

After getting shipped off to the psych ward, sources told The Post the Navy sent staffers to talk to Day in Bellevue Hospital, where he was undergoing a psychiatric evaluation. According to Gothamist:

"He was released [Friday] in their care, and they were going to treat him for post-traumatic stress. All charges against Day have been deferred, and it's unclear how he was able to prove his status."

So far, the charges against Day of weapons possession and a traffic violation have been deferred.

Over the past few months, other out-of-towners, however, including a former marine, have been arrested for illegal gun possession in New York and face years in prison despite pleas for leniency.

Editor's note: The lawyer for former Marine Ryan Jerome, one of those arrested recently, joined The Blaze Editor-in-Chief Scott Baker on Friday's GBTV 'For the Record' program.  Here's an excerpt from that interview: