A pair of Hispanic police employees had hoped their magic spell would get rid of their boss — but it wound up sending them packing instead

With budget cuts looming over the North Miami Police Department, longtime police officer Elizabeth Torres and office manager Yvonne Rodriguez had plotted to sprinkle enchanted birdseed around the city manager’s office, a Santeria ritual that they believed would make him want to leave, a police spokesman said. But the plan unraveled when they tried to get janitor Esther Villaneuva to spread the seeds for them. Worried that she would get in to trouble, Villaneuva reported the scheme. Now Rodriguez has been fired, and a recommendation is pending to terminate the union-protected Torres as well. But Torres says that she meant no harm. “It’s nothing malicious and nothing intended to hurt that person,” she told investigators. “This is something I was raised with.”