One suspected break-in artist apprehended by Karen Cord Taylor
Neighbors were watching. The police came two times. But two, perhaps three, lawbreakers — reports differ — couldn’t seem to get it through their heads that their activities in front of the Beacon Hill Bistro and DeLuca’s might land them in the clinker.
It started before midnight on Monday night a week ago. Two girls had gone into the Bistro to have dinner, leaving a camera and a GPS device in their car, which was parked on Charles Street, according to Virgil Aiello, who talked with several people who observed the action.
At some point someone broke their car window and took the items.
One Charles Street neighbor, who did not want to be identified because he said the perpetrators would be able to figure out where he lived, heard the window break. “I looked out the window and saw a gentleman in a hoodie breaking into a car,” he said. “I said, ‘hey,’ and they left.”
He called the police, but the police didn’t come for about half an hour, he said.
It was actually 27 minutes, according to Captain Bernard O’Rourke of Area A-1, of which Beacon Hill is a part.
“It wasn’t the best response time,” he said. “In a perfect world we would have gotten down there, but we didn’t have a car right away, and when there is no life-threatening reason, we’d wait until a car clears up.”
The police got a description of the vandals from the neighbors and left about 12:30 a.m.
But the lawbreakers weren’t finished. They returned about an hour later, and the witness heard them talking. “I went back upstairs, and I couldn’t sleep because I was all amped up with adrenalin and I hear these guys again,” he said. “I look out the window, and I see two guys on the coldest day of year. They were talking about how they’d been identified.”
This witness said he wasn’t sure whether earlier there had been two or three men, but in any case, it was clear to him they were up to no good. “It was ridiculous,” he said. “It was cold outside. I was like, ‘what are you doing out.’ They’re not out shopping.”
The witness noticed that a man was at the corner, as if he were posted as a lookout. So he called the police again, as did other neighbors. About the same time, someone, presumably these hooded sweatshirt guys, broke down the door of DeLuca’s and must have gotten in because cigarettes and other merchandise were strewn all over the floor. DeLuca’s alarm company also called the police.
Before the alarm company called, however, the police were responding to the witness’s and other neighbors’ calls. This time they came in full force with about 10 cars, the witness said, and they were fast. O’Rourke confirmed the speed on this call, saying the first car arrived within two minutes.
With a good description of a white male suspect in a grey, hooded sweatshirt with “Harvard” printed on it, the police took a look around and found such a person near the corner of Branch Street. The witness identified him as the man he had seen acting suspiciously, but no one had actually seen the face of the person who broke the car window, so it was not possible to arrest him for that crime, said O’Rourke.
The police said they also could not arrest him for breaking and entering, since he had not actually been observed breaking in.
But the suspect had a long record and outstanding warrants, so he was taken into custody. O’Rourke would not reveal the suspect’s name, and at the time the Times spoke to O’Rourke he did not know if the suspect had been held or otherwise charged. The other suspects were not found.
By the end of the week, after Aiello had called several times, detectives had stopped by the store when he wasn’t there to see if DeLuca’s had a security video that would help them identify the suspects. But Aiello is frustrated. First, he is frustrated because the police are calling the incident vandalism, when he says it was clearly breaking and entering. “The cigarettes didn’t get strewn around by themselves,” he said.
He also believes the police are paying too little attention to cases such as this. “They are missing a good opportunity to better serve the public by apprehending these criminals when they commit a crime like this — before they have a chance to do more damage,” he said.
He said his alarm company has a recording of the break-in, which he could provide the detectives if and when they call him back.
Aiello has changed the door, which is said is much better looking and provides more security. And he has upgraded his security system so that videos will activate if there is another break-in.
The witness remains amazed at the brazen behavior and stupidity of the men in the hooded sweatshirts who returned to the scene of the crime.
“It’s incredible considering that they knew they’d been identified and they knew people living on both sides of the street had seen them,” he said. “It just blew my mind.”
After almost two years as the assistant director, Diana Levitt is leaving the Beacon Hill Civic Association to join Forrester Research in Cambridge. “This is a big change for me,” said Levitt, who graduated with a degree in sociology from Boston University in 2005.
Levitt will be a research associate at Forrester and will help support analysts and researchers with a focus on electronic content management. “I needed some new challenges and diversity in the things I was doing,” said Levitt. “I am still young and still figuring out where my professional life will go.”
Levitt tackled a lot in a short time with the BHCA. She was brought in under former Executive Director Judith Hughes and helped new Executive Director Becky Delaune transition to her position over the last few months. During her tenure, the BHCA had two of the organization’s most successful annual appeals and moved, renovated and reorganized the office at 74 Joy Street. “I was really lucky to have landed here,” said Levitt, whose last day was Friday.
“She was always so gracious and darling,” said Delaune. “I am excited for her. She is bright and ambitious and she is going to do great.”
DCR’s still studying options for tunnel reconstruction; Plans to make recommendation in late spring by Suzanne Besser
The Department of Conservation, with the help of two advisory groups charged with looking at potential impacts of the Storrow Drive Tunnel reconstruction, has yet to pick one of the four options on the table — despite rumors to the contrary.
Several sources said the department seems to be giving the most attention to Option A, the least expensive one that proposes repairing the tunnel as is, and Option D, the most expensive one, which would bury both the eastbound and westbound traffic in two tunnels. But it is still too early in the public process to make any recommendation, according to Nancy Farrell of Regina Villa Associates, who is managing the project for DCR.
Most likely the decision won’t be made until early May, at which time DCR plans to file an Environmental Impact Report assessing the project alternatives and impacts to the Secretary of Environmental Affairs, Farrell said. In the meantime, there are volumes of studies to plow through concerning the length and impacts of the four construction alternatives, about which a lengthy presentation will be made to a joint meeting of the transportation and landscape advisory groups in late March.
“DCR is still open, but I know a lot of people are leaning toward Option 4,” said Farrell. “It is an attractive option because it connects the Esplanade with the green spaces on the Public Garden and the Boston Common. But there are complicated issues to study.”
At the last meeting of the landscaping group, several members expressed concern that they didn’t have enough information to even start choosing an option. “This process is tough,” said Farrell. However, she is confident that the essence of each proposal will be visible from the preliminary designs, which show 10 to 25 percent of the final design work, and the overall shape of each solution should not change when further details are added.
Little work took place on Cambridge Street last week because of the weather.
One mast arm was installed, and John Lepore, who supervises the job for Mass. Highway, said that NStar has now completed all the underground work the company can do until the street’s electricians return to finish their work.
He also said the trees are being tagged now in preparation for planting this spring.
Suffolk University students Andres Werthein and Simon Angel gathered enough snow together on Valentine’s Day to have a snowball fight in the Public Garden. It was Angel’s — who is from Columbia — first snowball fight, ever. Werthein is originally from Argentina and both live in the Suffolk dorms.
Snow day
Eight-year-old Ryan Santoro and his sister, six-year-old Grace, of Mount Vernon Street were not discouraged by the mix of rain and sleet during last week’s Valentine’s Day snow storm. They took advantage of the season’s first snow by sledding on Boston Common.
The Hill Tavern recently appeared before the Beacon Hill Civic Association’s zoning and licensing committee and then the organization’s board of directors to come to an understanding about how that restaurant will set up an outdoor café.
The owners want to install an awning with side panels to keep out the wind and rain. They already have a license allowing them to move onto the sidewalk.
The neighbors who 15 years ago advocated for Cambridge Street’s reconstruction were eager to see outdoor cafés on the sidewalks, and the sidewalk in the block between Garden and Irving streets was designed wider than usual to accommodate outdoor seating at the three restaurants that occupy the block.
But as Cambridge Street business owners learn how to best take advantage of the new look of the street, questions are arising.
The first one is the question the Hill Tavern is trying to answer. What is the best way to protect diners on the sidewalks from the weather? What is best for the diners, and what is best for the street?
It’s not a matter of sun on that side of the street, since there is little. Should restaurants install awnings? Side panels? Umbrellas over tables? Nothing?
Many who listened to the Hill Tavern’s presentation were concerned that awnings, especially ones with plastic side panels, may make the outdoor space seem like an enclosed room and that would undermine the goal of outdoor activity that neighbors were trying to achieve on the street.
If neighbors object to a plan for an outdoor café, how seriously do the Licensing Board and the Public Improvement Commission, both of which have to approve such seating, take the neighbors’ opinion.
How best to maintain the plantings on the street is another question. It looks as if the Cambridge Street Community Development Corporation, whose meetings are attended by MGH, the civic association, Mass. Eye & Ear and Charles River Plaza, Historic New England, Suffolk University, the Beacon Hill Business Association among others, will, as the city has “asked,” assume the responsibility for maintenance of the plantings in the median. (The CSCDC, about which most Beacon Hill and West End residents know little, has for about 30 years met monthly to monitor the street and solve problems.)
Most observers believe that if the city refuses to maintain the plantings, even if we don’t like the situation, we are all going to have to pitch in to do so. Otherwise the trees, shrubs and flowers promised for the median will die.
Cambridge Street business owners should join MGH and Davis Marcus Partners and the other big owners on the street should contribute some amount of money toward the plant maintenance.
But how much? What can be done if a business refuses? Could the civic association extract a fee that would go toward the maintenance each time a business applied for a zoning or licensing change?
Of course the big question is still: Will Cambridge Street ever be finished? Until it is, all the other questions are moot.
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