I-Team: MBTA Police Officer Suspended For Mailing Dead Rats
BOSTON (CBS) - An MBTA police officer is suspended after he was caught mailing dead rats.
The I-Team has learned it stemmed from possible involvement with prostitutes.
The officer is accused of putting at least two rats in the mail.
MBTA Police Officer Greg Thorpe is off the job tonight. The officer who has only been on the job for a few years was caught mailing dead rats to a Hyde Park man.
WBZ-TV's Joe Shortsleeve reports
The rats were mailed about ten days ago from a UPS store in South Boston.
Sources tell WBZ Officer Thorpe was caught on video by security cameras in the UPS customer service center in South Boston. Sources say he was seen mailing two packages, and at one point the source says he looks at the security camera and smiles.
Sources say Officer Thorpe's girlfriend offered her personal services on Craigslist.com and that the uniformed officer would drive her and her friends to appointments in his marked MBTA cruiser during his midnight shift, offering protection.
Sources say one man never paid one of the girls and so Thorpe mailed him the rats.
Thorpe, for no good reason, used Milton Hospital as a return address and when one of the two boxes was returned one week ago, the bloody smelly package set off a hazardous response by Milton Police and Fire.
Documents obtained by WBZ show when Milton Firefighters opened it, a bloody rat was on the only item in the box.
Deputy Fire Chief Kevin Finerty says he has never seen anything like in his 25 years on the job.
The MBTA Police released a statement today.
"Greg Thorpe has been placed on administrative leave pending the results of an internal investigation."
Sources tell WBZ tonight officer Thorpe may at some point face charges from Boston Police for intimidating a witness and animal cruelty but no charges have been filed so far.
Thorpe is under pressure to resign.
We've also been told the MBTA is expected to begin the process of firing him.
