GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS)(OC): Tonight, we have a rare look into
the mind of a serial conman. Just 18, the young Florida man talked his way into an emergency room to treat patients and posed as a cop behind the wheel of a cruiser. After his
arrest, he spoke to police for three hours and tonight, ABC's Matt Gutman
brings us inside that interrogation room.
MATT GUTMAN (ABC NEWS)(VO): In
"Catch Me If You Can," Leonardo DiCaprio played the world's most infamous con artist,
suavely impersonating a pilot.
LEONARDO DICAPRIO (ACTOR): So you
concur?
MATT GUTMAN (ABC NEWS)(VO): And a
doctor.
MATT GUTMAN (ABC NEWS)(OC): Matthew,
did you treat patients?
MATT GUTMAN (ABC NEWS)(VO): Police say
17-year-old Matthew Scheidt also masqueraded as a medical professional, until he got caught. In this just-released video, he tells
investigators he even administered CPR to a patient, after a real doctor left the
room.
MATTHEW SCHEIDT (IMPERSONATOR): He
said, can you take over CPR? I started
doing CPR on her for like a minute, two minutes, while he just went out there
and got some medications and came back in.
The only reason why I did do it was because there was nobody else
there. And I'm not going to let her die.
MATT GUTMAN (ABC NEWS)(VO): And wearing scrubs and a lab coat, he kept
going back for days.
DOCTOR MERRY HABER (FORENSIC
PSYCHOLOGIST): It becomes like an addiction.
The rush is so high when they get away with
it that they want that feeling again.
MATT GUTMAN (ABC NEWS)(OC): Again and
again.
DOCTOR MERRY HABER (FORENSIC
PSYCHOLOGIST): Again and again.
MATT GUTMAN (ABC NEWS)(VO): So it was
for Frank Abegnale, the inspiration behind "Catch Me If You
Can." Impersonating a doctor, he
actually wrote on patient's charts. A
real pilot actually handed him control of a plane during a commercial flight.
FRANK ABEGNALE (IMPOSTER): The pilot
uniform always made me feel - feel good.
It gave me respect and people looked at me differently. It made me believe I was somebody. Allowed me to, of course, meet women.
MATT GUTMAN (ABC NEWS)(OC): So how do these imposters get away with it? Psychologists call it the halo effect. People standing around, some in scrubs, some
in a lab coat, maybe wearing a stethoscope and automatically
they're transformed into people of authority. But experts
say if you're suspicious of someone being an imposture, all you have to do to
expose them is ask them a couple of questions.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS)(VO):
That's how Matthew Scheidt got busted. He was cruising around Miami allegedly posing
as a cop. Matt Gutman, ABC News, Miami.