Quite why Mountain City Police Officer Jody Putnam decided to shoot a squirrel inside a Dollar General store is something of a mystery. Phobia? Substance abuse-related cognitive issues? Officer Putnam’s subsequent decision to mace the mammal is similarly strange, given that the store had customers inside it at the time. I suppose Mountain City’s 2,383 residents (as of 2000) should be grateful that Officer Putnam went rogue on a squirrel rather than a two-legged varmint. Still, you gotta wonder, as wsav.com did, if there’d been some warning signs about the former Captain at the Johnson County Tennessee Sheriff’s Office leading up to this incident. And, as wsav.com didn’t, what happened to the squirrel. In any case, Officer Putnam’s job loss is the rodents’ gain. Then again, our IGOTD now has some time on his hands and a score to settle . . .
Home Irresponsible Gun Owner... Irresponsible Gun Owner of the Day: Mountain City Police Officer Jody Putnam...
Continuing to do Appalachia proud.
He’s just lucky that squirrel wasn’t someone’s wife.
Have you seen what a squirrel will do to a family of 4 if gets inside of a trailer?
Have you seen what it will do to a family of 14?
*Shudder*
Jody? Really? If you wanted to put a chip on a boy childs shoulders Jody will do it. Why not Sue? Or did the man in black threaten legal action?
Hahahahaha
Great song.
What a complete idiot! Twice. Once for the gun then pepper spray indoors? WTF?
Isn’t Johnson Cty where James “if you call me psycho, I will kill you” Yeager hails from?
Not even close. Camden is on the other side of Nashville. about five hours.
He must have mistaken it for a really small dog.
A squirrel with a laser duct taped to its forehead could be lethal indeed. Otherwise, not so much.
If we can’t get a frickin shark with a fricken laser on his head how can we get a fricken squirrel with a fricken laser on his head?
Police thinking they are above the law. What else is new. This officer gets fired, however, if it were you or me who did the shooting we would be arrested and prosecuted. The only reason they were fired was for not filling a report. That sound fair to anyone?
I checked out this story whilst picturing Jimbo from South Park in my mind the whole time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt6kKhlX8vU
One question: Did he shoot the squirrel in the nuts?
Caught me by surprise. Almost sneezed Pepsi.
High pressure sinus flush with carbonated or alcoholic beverage of your choice. One of the side benefits of reading TTAG. You’d pay big bucks for this service at a European Spa.
Sounds like a Ray Stevens song
I wonder if he had a small game hunting license.
How do you come up with the cop was male? I’m seeing a copchic with PMS. And a loaded gun.
They probably got it from the linked-to story, and its copious use of the pronoun “he”, as well as the accompanying photos of the man in question. Reading comprehension is hard, right?
LOL.
What got ventilated, the roof, wall, floor, or any combination these? Did they check to see if anyone or thing beyond was hit? He would get promotion in NYC.
He hit a building from the inside. NYPD would have missed.
NYPD would have hit three other squirrels that were outside the building.
Coffee spew. Literally.
Dear RF,
As a freedom loving American I must respectfully request that you cease and desist publishing stories regarding police officers and “negligence”. Everyone knows that these stories are false journalism published by Fox News And sponsored by the NRA to spread disinformation and undermine the absolute authority of the police in this country. Police officers have superior training, superior intellect, and are morally superior when compared to civilians making incidents like this categorically impossible. You should be ashamed.
Peirsonb
P.S. if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go drool on myself while I wait for my elected officials to tell me what to do with my day.
Okay, I figured it out upon reading the story. The officer finally lost his marbles with idiots calling 911 for stupid reasons that shouldn’t involve cops. “Jody Putnam, now a former Mountain City Police Officer, was on duty when Dollar General needed help with a squirrel in their building.” WTF did they want him to do, negotiate with it?
“Okay, you want police help?” (BANG!)
Bet next time they call the freakin’ exterminators.
He should’ve tried to kill it by running it over with his car…while it was still inside the store.
Was it a black squirrel? Will ACLU be involved?
I dunno, but 40 is a little big for a squirrel.
Sounds like a good u-tube video though.
SQUIRREL!