No tension in THIS workplace...

Just like pretty much everyone else who's worked more than, say, forty-five minutes in their life, I've been in workplaces where there is tension.

Someone takes credit for another's work. An undeserving nincompoop gets promoted. A guaranteed-to-fail deal is signed. An unpopular and/or strategic decision is announced. A backstabs B. There's a lay-off coming. The lay-off occurs. There's another lay-off coming. 

Sometimes the tension is of a more personal nature. C has a crush on D, who doesn't know C exists. E's screwing around on his wife with F, and then they break up. Etc.

The workplace is a compilation of human beings. Of course there's tension. 

But there's tension and then there's TENSION. And I can only imagine that what's happening in the Plymouth Fire Department is TENSION. 

Here's the sitch.

A firefighter has been charged with installing spy cameras in the house he had shared with his girlfriend, who post-breakup stayed put for a while, renting the house he owned for a few months after they'd split. 

While his GF was still in residence, Richard Pimental slipped her a couple of spy cams mickies. One was in a clock that he'd gifted her with, along with an apologetic note. (Awwww....) She then found another cam "disguised to look like an outlet plug."

Pimental stopped by, supposedly to set some mousetraps, but, no, it was to setup a storage device for the videos from the spy cams.

After the couple split, the GF had started seeing another fellow. As luck and circumstance would have it, the new BF was a fellow firefighter of Pimental.

So the videos Pimental made were of the exGF and a current colleague getting it on.

Morons being morons:

Pimental allegedly shared what he was doing with the cameras with at least one firefighter and another first responder. In one text, Pimental allegedly acknowledged that installing the cameras and recording the people inside the home was illegal.

“She found out it seems,” Pimental texted the first responder, adding that he had recorded the woman “which was illegal...”, according to court records. (Source: Boston Globe)

And morons being morons, Pimental is apparently unaware that the authorities can figure out exactly what you've searched on. 

Based on a court-authorized search of Pimental’s phone, investigators located Google searches including “Top 7 Best Hidden Cameras That Look Like Everyday Objects” and “Massachusetts law about hidden cameras in house,” according to police.

And scorned lover morons being scorned lover morons, Pimental shared a 10 second cut of the exGF and the new fellow firefighter BF with yet another firefighter and an EMT.

What a colossal a-hole!!!

As for now, Pimental's a colossal a-hole who's been "released on personal recognizance."

He was ordered to stay away from his former girlfriend and her new boyfriend, who is also a Plymouth firefighter, unless they need to work together, according to court records.

Plymouth FD is not NYFD or even Boston FD. Plymouth is a small city with a handful of fire stations and 120 firefighters. Sure, it's large enough that it's possible to set up schedules so that Pimental and the new BF aren't working together. But what if there's a major fire or some sort of incident that requires all hands on? And what about friends of Pimental and friends of the new BF who work together? This is a small fire department in a small city. I'm guessing that most Plymouth fire fighters at least vaguely know all the other guys in the department. 

Sure, I'm guessing that there will be plenty of awful humor about this situation. But I'm also guessing that there will be plenty of TENSION in that workplace.

And firefighters are pretty rugged guys. When they're not fighting fires, which is most of the time, a lot of them are working out. I sure wouldn't want to get into it with one of them. Not to mention that fire stations are full of firefighting equipment that could be used to fight more than fires. Surely, a halligan can be weaponized.

Maybe I'm reading this all wrong. Maybe the entire situation will be passed off as a small embarassment, a bad joke, an opportunity for commentary on buff-hot bods (or not). Maybe Pimental's buddies think that the revenge porn is justified. Maybe the exGF and the new BF really don't care all that much.

But no one wants to spied on by an ex or anyone else.

TENSION levels at Plymouth FD have got to be running plenty high.