Three NYPD cops staged a fake traffic stop to help a man propose to his girlfriend in Queens after a friend connected to the scandal-plagued Shomrim patrol group asked for a favor, the future bride said Friday.
The officers from the 101st Precinct in Far Rockaway performed the stunt Wednesday when they pulled over Yehuda Coriat, 22, and his 20-year-old girlfriend, Sorah Oppen.
The cops made a bogus accusation that they were transporting weapons and drugs in the car.
After “questioning” Oppen about her boyfriend, the cops asked her to pop open the trunk — and out came the balloons.
Coriat then got down on his knee and proposed.
Oppen told The Post that a friend named Yoel Tyrnauer is a volunteer with the Shomrim patrol in Brooklyn’s Borough Park and asked the cops for the favor.
But Tyrnauer distanced himself from Shomrim — which is ensnared in a bribery scheme involving NYPD pistol permits — saying he simply walked into the precinct as just another citizen and convinced them to play along.
“I just went into the precinct and tried my luck,” Tyrnauer said. “I don’t know the cops. This whole thing has nothing to do with Shomrim.”
Oppen said the cops “weren’t on duty at the time. They did him a favor. They came in dressed up [in uniform], got the car and did the whole getup just as a favor.”
Tyrnauer said he “doesn’t know” whether the police officers were on or off duty.
Police would not immediately say whether the cops had been on duty.
In April, a Borough Park Shomrim leader was arrested for allegedly giving cash bribes to “expedite” pistol permits for members of the patrol, which operates in Orthodox Jewish communities.
A Shomrim leader, Alex Lichtenstein, is accused of offering one NYPD cop nearly $1 million for continuing to provide gun permits for his clients, court documents state.