An officer with the Department of Correction found himself on the wrong side of the law after his department-issued weapon ended up in the hands of two other people on Nov. 28.
Police said that the dangerous game of keepaway started when Joseph LaFleur, 28, and his friend Jean Hegel, 27, were preparing to some women at Cafe Remy on Third Avenue near 71st Street.
Before the celebration began, cops said that LaFleur made a point of putting his 9-mm pistol — and a clip with 10 rounds — in his car’s glove box.
But at some point afterwards, Hegel got into an argument with two other men and, in a fit of anger, he ran back to the car to retrieve the gun without LaFleur’s knowledge, cops said.
Hegel returned, shouted some threats and drew his pistol — only to have it swiped by one of the men that he was yelling at. That man then ran away with the pistol into the nearest subway station.
When Hegel told LaFleur what had happened, the Correction officer called police and apparently claimed that someone had mugged him and ran off with his gun.
Next, he tracked down the man who had taken the gun — heading all the way to a Fort Greene address — but the man would not give up the pistol, police said.
The gun was eventually returned, but only after LaFleur came clean and was charged with filing a false report.
Calls to the Department of Correction were not returned by press time.
