Jody Putnam kicked off police force squirrel--Jody Putnam kicked off police force squirrel. It sounds nuts, but a Tennessee police officer has been kicked off the force after a run-in with a squirrel.

Jody Putnam was fired from the Mountain City Police Force after a Sept. 27 incident where he shot his gun at the unnamed squirrel, which had found its way into the Dollar General store.

Animal control to help get rid of the rascally rodent, but when that officer was unavailable, Putnam answered the call of duty instead.

Putnam tried to apprehend his squirrelly suspect by shooting his gun inside the store, according to property owner Carl Duffield.

“Shooting back there, of course that should not have been, that should not have happened. Then they began to spray it with mace and pepper spray.” Duffield told WJHL-TV. “There was a lot of people that come out and just like me they came out and they were coughing and a hacking. It was comical, but I’m sure they didn’t feel that way, the customers that came out.”

It is unknown how many shots Putnam fired, and Dollar General store officials have refused to release the surveillance tape.
When bystanders were allowed back in the store, they saw the dead squirrel pinned under his shoe, the Mountain City Tomahawk reported.

In Mountain City, officers are required to make a written statement to their supervisor whenever they fire a weapon.

Putnam, an officer with nearly two decades of experience, refused to explain his squirrel shooting, so he was fired by the town’s Board of Mayor and Alderman, according to WBIR.

“The decision the City Council made on this incident speaks for itself,” Mountain City Mayor Lawrence Keeble told the Tomahawk.