Chief Earl Mayo is the top cop in the town of New Chicago, Indiana. Well, he was. He apparently decided the best way to supplement his small-town (pop. 2,200) police chief salary was to play “evidence room flea market” with seized firearms and allegedly sell the purloined pistols to a local casa de empeño.
The top prize for Chief Mayo from the city’s selection of seized firearms: a Taurus G3 pistol. That’s a gun that you can find on sale for about $250 brand new on a slow Tuesday at the local gun store. He didn’t go for something cooler or more expensive. Not a GLOCK or a Colt and surely not a Staccato. Nope…the chief risked his badge, job, pension and freedom over a Brazilian-made budget striker-fired pistol.
Even your average crackhead in Gary would say, “Bro, that’s just dumb.”
But wait…hold his beer because there’s more. When people started asking questions, Chief Mayo allegedly sent a friend with $600 in her pocket to try and buy the gun back. That’s not master criminal behavior, that’s aspiring Florida Man energy, but with less planning.
Meanwhile, his father is a Major in the Indiana State Police and the current Democrat nominee for Lake County Sheriff. Imagine the family dinner conversation:
“Hey son, how’s the police chief gig?”
“Great dad, I just pawned some guy’s Taurus G3. Could you pass the potatoes?”
Indiana doesn’t mess around like nearby Cook County does. This guy’s about to trade in that chief’s uniform for some orange scrubs and a bunkmate who no doubt just loves cops.
WGN Channel 9 has the sad story…
The police chief of New Chicago, Indiana, was taken into custody in Ohio and is accused of stealing guns tied to criminal investigations and selling them to a pawn shop.
Mayo, who wrote a self-published novel about a bad cop turned good, titled, “When Lines Are Crossed: Love, Trust, Betrayal,” is facing seven felony charges, including theft, official misconduct, attempted obstruction of justice and unlawful possession of anabolic steroids. …
According to court documents, the alleged theft came to light after a Lake County deputy prosecutor requested a detective, who also serves as a Task Force Officer with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), run a firearm trace on a handgun associated with a pending 2023 criminal case for a woman accused of unlawfully carrying a handgun with a prior felony conviction.
During the trace, investigators learned the gun was sold on April 29, 2025, at Mega Cash Pawn on 37th Avenue in Hobart, according to court documents.
Police later determined the firearm was sold to the shop by Mayo, who had been the arresting officer in the original case.