A BAD, BADGE DAY
‘Cop’s hooker steals car with his gun inside’
This wasn’t the kind of action he was looking for.
A cop is in hot water after picking up a prostitute in Brooklyn while off duty and leaving her in his still-running car — his service weapon on the front seat — while he stopped to get cash for their rendezvous, law-enforcement sources told The Post.
The hooker allegedly saw a golden opportunity when Officer Ali Sheppard got out of his 2015 Jeep Wrangler to hit the ATM just after midnight Tuesday: She got behind the wheel and drove off, the sources said. And while police have since caught the lady of the night and recovered Sheppard’s vehicle, the lusty lawman’s Smith & Wesson pistol is still in the wind, the sources said.
Even Sheppard’s father couldn’t believe his 38-year-old son — an Army vet who’s been a cop for 13 years — could be such a bonehead.
“You’ve got to be f--ing kidding me,” stunned dad Eugene Sheppard said from the home in Brownsville that he shares with his son. “I’m in total shock. I would never have thought this. The man has been in the service twice. I’ve never heard that he would pick up a prostitute.”
Officer Sheppard, who works in Brooklyn’s 76th Precinct, allegedly hired Taquanna Lawton — known as “Unique” — at Liberty Avenue and Sackman Street in Browns- ville at around 12:15 a.m. Tuesday, sources say. They were headed to a motel in East New York, but Sheppard made a pit stop to withdraw cash from an ATM at the Imperial Hotel, the sources said.
That’s when Lawton, 20, allegedly jumped in the driver’s seat and drove off, with the firearm on the front seat. Police found Lawton, the jacked Jeep, plus some narcotics and drug paraphernalia at around 3 p.m. Tuesday in Far Rockaway.
She was charged with grand larceny and possession of stolen property, according to police.
Sheppard raked in $105,819 last year, including overtime, according to SeeThruNY.
“He was immediately suspended, and he’ll be facing some disciplinary action,” NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said at an unrelated press conference.
One officer at Sheppard’s station house in Carroll Gardens said it was the talk of the precinct.
“I don’t have any firsthand knowledge,” said the officer as he cataloged hypodermic needles from another crime suspect’s trunk. “I just know everyone was talking about it.”
But four cops at a nearby doughnut shop were surprised to hear the news. “Everybody’s got a mind of their own,” said a Housing Bureau officer who covers part of the 76th. “But, my God,” he said, shaking his head. “That’s dumb.”