Florida Police Employees Fired for Trying to Cast Spell

A pair of Florida police employees had hoped their magic spell would get rid of their boss—but it wound up sending them packing instead. With budget cuts looming over the North Miami Police Department, longtime cop Elizabeth Torres and office manager Yvonne Rodriguez had plotted to sprinkle enchanted birdseed around the city manager’s office, a Santeria ritual that they believed would make him want to leave, a police spokesman tells MSNBC.

But the plan unraveled when they tried to get janitor Esther Villaneuva to spread the seeds for them. Worried she’d get in trouble or that some harm might come to the city manager, Villaneuva reported the scheme. Now Rodriguez has been fired, and a recommendation is pending to terminate the union-protected Torres as well. But Torres says she meant no harm. “It’s nothing malicious and nothing intended to hurt that person,” she told investigators. “This is something I was raised with.” (More strange stuff stories.)