The next day, three of the Newton officers talked to the sergeant over the phone and met with him to apologize.

It is unclear if the other two officers involved apologized immediately. Newton police officials only became aware of their involvement in the egging during an internal investigation into the matter.

The sergeant asked that the pranksters pay to detail his wife’s car, power wash his house, and apologize to his wife. They sent her fruit basket.

“Before parting ways,” one officer said, the sergeant “told us that the next time we go out drinking and decide to egg a house, to make sure he’s with us.”

The sergeant expected that to be the end of the case. A day later, the sergeant and officers were all ordered by Mintz to compose “Dear Chief” letters.

In their letters, the officers dismissed speculation that the episode reflected any tensions between sergeants and patrolmen in the police department.