LARGO, FL — A Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office patrol deputy has resigned after mailing a toy bomb to a sheriff’s lieutenant as a joke. The “joke” resulted in the partial evacuation of the Sheriff’s Administration Building at 10750 Ulmerton Road, Largo.
Lt. Joseph Gerretz was in his office at the administration building at 3 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 8 when he received a package through the inner-office mail.
Gerretz opened the box at his desk and found a red cylinder-shaped object with protruding wires insulated with plastic packaging. A hand-written note with the word “Boom” was included inside the package.
Gerretz immediately vacated his office and alerted staff. Portions of the Sheriff’s Administration Building were evacuated and a handler with a K9 bomb detection dog was called to the scene.
The dog did not react to the package so the sheriff’s office called in the Tampa Police Department Bomb Team, which confirmed that the device was a toy bomb and didn’t pose a threat.
Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri sent an agency-wide notice about the partial evacuation due to the suspicious package. When Deputy James Piper saw the notice, he contacted his supervisor and admitted to sending the toy bomb as a joke. He then resigned effective immediately.
He was subsequently arrested on Jan. 9 and charged with planting a hoax bomb, a second-degree felony.
Piper, 59, worked for the sheriff’s office from 1982 to 2015. He retired and was hired back in January 2017.
Images via Pinellas Sheriff
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