Plymouth police searching for captain’s gun left behind in Wareham courthouse

By Todd Feathers, Globe Correspondent

Police are searching today for a Plymouth police captain’s service weapon, which he left in a Wareham District Court bathroom Monday, authorities said.

Plymouth Police Chief Michael Botieri said in a telephone interview that he was notified Monday afternoon that Captain John Rogers Jr. had misplaced the revolver while testifying at the court. Rogers is in charge of operations for the department.

Botieri said his department and the Wareham police, who are conducting the investigation, are taking the situation “very seriously.”

“It’s not an easy investigation,” he said. “There were a lot of people in the court at the time.”

Botieri said Rogers would face “appropriate disciplinary action,” but commended him as a fine officer with a distinguished record.

Rogers lost the revolver in one of the courthouse’s bathrooms and didn’t realize the gun was missing for some time, Botieri said.

Once Rogers reported the missing weapon, State Police conducted an exhaustive search of the courthouse in case someone had stashed the gun inside the building. But the firearm was not found, Botieri said.

“There is always danger in having an uncontrolled, unaccounted-for weapon,” Botieri said. “You don’t know what it’s going to be used for.”

The problem with the Plymouth police captain comes a few days after New Hampshire law enforcement was able to recover a handgun stolen from a court security officer at the Concord, N.H., District Court.

According to New Hampshire State Police, the court security officer misplaced her firearm while using the bathroom. Police, using security camera video from inside the building, quickly learned that a Pittsfield, N.H., woman had taken the firearm and handed it off to a male friend.

Police identified the people involved and arrested them at a Chichester tattoo parlor Saturday night. The .40-caliber Glock pistol was later found in the man’s Barnstead home, police said.