An Indiana police chief has resigned rather than accept a week's suspension without pay over what he said was a harmless prank of giving a friend a piece of duck jerky made for dogs.
Bobby Bass stepped down as Attica's police chief on Thursday, a day after Mayor Robert Shepard told him about the punishment.
Bass said the prank involved him offering two people a piece of the jerky after he had earlier eaten some of it.
"One of them took a bite, we told him what it was and we all had a laugh," Bass told the Journal & Courier of Lafayette.
Another person complained to the mayor that the prank wasn't professional. Shepard said didn't believe Bass' action was appropriate and that some punishment was deserved.
"I felt under the circumstances that it was minimal and more of a slap on the wrist," Shepard told WLFI-TV. "I understand that can be a blow to the ego, but I felt it was needed for the benefit of the department."
Bass became chief in the 3,200-person city about 20 miles west of Lafayette in January 2011 after previously serving two terms as the Fountain County sheriff.
Bass said he disagreed with the mayor's decision to discipline him without letting him know who complained about the prank.
"If no one involved in the prank was offended, and you aren't even going to tell me who placed the complaint, I'm not going to accept that," Bass said. "I've been doing this for 27 years. If someone is going to make an accusation, let me face my accuser."
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