What to Know
- Pinellas County Dep. James Piper told his supervisor that he had sent it as a joke before resigning from his position effective immediately.
A sheriff’s deputy in the Tampa Bay area is out of a job after admitting to sending a toy bomb to a member of his department as a joke.
NBC affiliate WFLA-TV reports that Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Joseph Gerretz received a package at his desk through inner-office mail. When he opened the box, he found a red object with wires and a hand written note saying “boom”.
Gerretz immediately notified officials and a portion of the department’s building was evacuated before a K9 bomb sniffing dog and members of the Tampa Police Department’s bomb squad were called in to inspect the object, eventually giving it the all clear.
After Sheriff Bob Gualtieri sent an email to the entire department about the incident, Deputy James Piper told his supervisor that he had sent it as a joke before resigning from his position effective immediately.
Piper was a 33-year veteran of the department before retiring in 2015 and eventually being rehired two years later.
