Every day, police officers respond to reports of all sorts of events and nonevents, most of which never make the news. Here is a sampling of lesser-known — but no less noteworthy — incidents from police log books (a.k.a. blotters) in our suburbs.
TALK ABOUT A BRAZEN THEFT
It’s not every day that you see a thief walk out of a store with a cash register in broad daylight. But that’s exactly what police say happened on the morning of June 26, when Weymouth officers were sent to investigate the larceny of such a register from a store on Broad Street. The establishment in question is divided into two sections; one side is a convenience store and the other sells liquor. The owner told police that at 10 a.m. two men walked in, with one asking to buy a nip from the liquor store. While the owner helped him on that side, the other guy allegedly took the convenience store cash register and walked out with it. Surveillance images from security cameras show just that. Police say the man with the register had a getaway driver pick him up, and they were seen taking off in an older model Ford Explorer or Mercury Mountaineer.
ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL . . . OF A STOLEN SUV
At approximately 10:15 p.m. June 27, State Police contacted their colleagues in Quincy to report they were picking up a LoJack signal from a stolen car in the vicinity of Interstate 93 and Furnace Brook Parkway. Quincy officers determined the signal came from a white 2002 Hyundai Santa Fe sports utility vehicle that had been reported stolen from an auto repair shop on Liberty Street earlier that day. Following the signal, a Quincy police sergeant found the SUV parked alongside an auto repair shop on Independence Avenue. As he approached it, though, its engine running, the officer was surprised to find a 35-year-old Quincy man snoozing in the driver’s seat. The sleepy driver was awakened, arrested, and charged with receiving a stolen motor vehicle.
NO ROOM AT THE INN?
Just after 10 p.m. June 12, Boxborough police received a call from someone who was trying to get into the Holiday Inn there. The caller told police the doors to the hotel were locked and the place seemed deserted. With good reason, given the time of day, police soon found: The confused hotel guest was actually standing before the Cisco Systems office building next door. The technology giant’s local space shares a driveway with the hotel, and the caller, it seems, wasn’t the first to show up at the wrong building.
QUICK TO BLAME
Just before 8 a.m. June 20, a staffer at a bus company in Stow called police to report that one of its drivers had found empty Bud Light and Hennessy cognac bottles, two tea lights, and a set of photo-booth-style pictures dated June 18 inside one of the vehicles — evidence, the company believed, that young mischief-makers had broken into the bus over the weekend. The driver who found the pictures promised to bring them in later that morning. An hour and a half later, the company called back to say, effectively, never mind: The bus, it seems, had been rented for a wedding over the weekend, and all the stuff left behind was evidence of a party, not a crime.
THAT’S JUST WHERE I LEFT THEM
At 1:17 a.m. June 18, Salem police officers were dispatched to Wharf Street because someone spotted a set of keys in the front door of a business there. Officers soon spoke to the woman who owns the jewelry and gift shop, and she conceded that she mistakenly leaves her keys in the door “a lot.’’ She thanked the officers and this time, closed up her shop properly for the night.
BUT THIS FELLOW WASN’T SO LUCKY
Here’s another tale involving a set of keys, with a less-than-happy ending. At 11:50 a.m. June 27, a man told Milford police that when he came home he accidentally left his keys in the door leading to his apartment. When he came out to retrieve them, they were gone.
Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @emilysweeney.
