NYPD Investigates Report of Diddy NYPD Escort

The NYPD said Tuesday it is investigating a police escort briefly provided to Sean "Diddy" Combs last Friday as he left Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan, heading to an appearance in New Jersey.

Reports had surfaced that Combs was escorted all the way to New Jersey, but the NYPD said in a statement that a police van only escorted the star for one and 1/2 blocks outside the venue to Dyer Avenue.

"Although a distance of just one block, the assistance provided was unauthorized and is under investigation," NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.

Sources tell NBC New York that a member of Diddy's entourage went into the Midtown South precinct to ask for a police escort, but was denied.

The NYPD said that a person claiming to represent Combs eventually convinced a sergeant to direct a police van to briefly escort him.

Mayor Bloomberg said the city was investigating.

The NYPD rarely gives escorts to private citizens. Bloomberg said Tuesday that police escorts should only be used for security purposes.

Police in Washington, D.C. are scrambling to answer similar questions after it was revealed that cops gave Charlie Sheen an escort last week from the airport to his performance at DAR Constitution Hall.

Shortly after the mayor said the city was probing the incident, the man who initially said he helped arrange the escort changed his story.

John Mahdessian, who helped Diddy with clothes for his Hammerstein show that night, told NBC New York he went with Diddy in a motorcade through the Lincoln Tunnel, confirming the story that was first reported in the New York Post.

Later, speaking again with NBC New York, Mahdessian said the earlier claims had been exaggerated, and said there was no escort through the tunnel.

The club at which Diddy was scheduled to appear Friday night, Club 4 Sixty 6 in West Orange, also never saw a police escort, representatives from the club told NBC New York.

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