Did we just hear the death rattle of the Hardin-American Private Police Force deal?
The last two Mercedes SUVs that the mysterious private security contractor brought to the tiny Montana town have been taken back.
Becky Shay, APPF’s spokeswoman, told the AP she gave the keys to Maziar Mafi on Tuesday. Mafi, the company’s attorney until earlier this month, was the guarantor on the cars. Shay herself had been driving one of them.
Late last week, APPF announced that it had withdrawn from a controversial deal for it to be put in charge of the town’s empty prison.
The SUVs had helped create alarm about the deal. Michael Hilton, the APPF official who had negotiated the agreement, rolled into Hardin late last month with three of them. They bore decals that said “City of Hardin Police Department,” and the APF logo.
