A Boston cop has been sacked after two strippers stole his service weapon last winter.
Emanuel Brandao, 37, was officially fired on March 28 for conduct unfit for a police officer after two Rhode Island strippers allegedly stole his gun from the glove box of his BMW in February, according to the Boston Globe.
Brandao was already on probation because he was a recent addition to America’s oldest police force.
The BPD placed Brandao on leave and opened an internal investigation, according to the AP.
Brandao reportedly called Pawtucket Police at about 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 2 to report that his weapon had been taken from his vehicle in the Hampton Inn parking lot in Pawtucket, RI. The off-duty officer reportedly went to the hotel bar to meet a woman, later identified as Neish Rivera, he’d been exchanging messages through Instagram, before going to the Nara Lounge in Providence where they met up with Rivera’s friend, Melissa Dacier.
Brandao told investigators had his gun on him at that time, but reportedly locked it in his car before trio “spent some time” at Cadillac Lounge. They were soon kicked out of the club after security said they considered a man they were with to be “undesirable.” Security also knew Rivera, a former stripper who danced there, had been charged with prostitution at the Foxy Lady a month prior, according to the Globe.
Brandao told police the trio returned to the Hampton Inn, where the women reportedly got into an argument with a man, later identified as Kyle Benford, and his girlfriend in the hotel hallway. Benford had accused Dacier and Rivera of stealing something from the couple. Following the confrontation, the trio went to Brandao hotel room and “hung out.”
However, the women later told police that Brandao agreed to pay them $2,500 for sex, according to the Providence Journal.
Brandao told investigators that he had given Dacier his keys while they were at the hotel to retrieve his phone charger from his car. At this point, he told officials that his gun went missing.
Pawtucket police arrested Neish Rivera, 25, of Pawtucket and Melissa Dacier, 22, of Providence were charged with conspiracy and the larceny of a firearm. Rivera later told investigators that the missing gun had been ditched in a mail slot of a fire station in Providence.
Benford, 24, was also arrested in February in connection with the theft of the gun.
“Specifically, on or about Feb. 2 while off-duty in Rhode Island he failed to properly secure his department-issued firearm when he gave his vehicle keys to a civilian and the civilian used those keys to take his firearm,” department spokesman Detective Sgt. John Boyle told the Boston Herald.
