The following information was provided by the Watertown Police. The following incidents occurred between Aug. 15 and Aug. 21
Arrests
Aug. 19, 5:16 p.m.: Police were called to Target after security stopped two people who were seen leaving the store without paying for merchandise. Officers spoke with the suspects, and the male suspect admitted to placing several items in a cart as the female suspect pushed the cart. They had a total of $752.63 in merchandise, including nine watches, clothing, a knife, and a kitchen appliance. Security recognized the male suspect from three previous shoplifting incidents on July 23, 24 and 27. Shatia Glover, 34, of Boston, was arrested on a charge of shoplifting over $250. Carlton Spence, 60, homeless, was arrested on a charge of shoplifting over $250, and three counts of shoplifting (from previous dates).
Aug. 21, 4:22 p.m.: Target reported suspects who had been seen taking items from the store and gave police a description. The couple was located on a roadway inside Arsenal Yards. They took an air fryer worth $230 and a Nespresso Vertuo coffee maker worth $150. When stopped they also had a bag from Marshalls with clothing inside but they did not have a receipt for the $60 in items. Isamar Santana, 30 of Brighton, was arrested on two counts of shoplifting and police discovered she was also wanted on three warrants from Brighton District Court — one for receiving stolen property and larceny from a building, the second for shoplifting, and the third for shoplifting and receiving stolen property. Megan Fricke, 27, of Boston, was arrested on two counts of shoplifting.
Incidents
Aug. 15: Police went to Bates Road for a stolen catalytic converter. The owner said his 2008 Toyota Prius was parked in the driveway and it was taken sometime overnight.
Aug. 15, 6:38 p.m.: A Sunnybank road resident parked her vehicle in front of her home on Aug. 14 at about 2 p.m. and when she went out at 3:30 p.m. on Aug. 15 the catalytic converter was gone. The vehicle was a 2008 Toyota Prius.
Aug. 16, 6:05 a.m.: An employee arrived at Sensational Foods on Bigelow Avenue at about 5:45 a.m. and found the rear door had been damaged and was left wide open. An undisclosed amount of money was taken from a desk drawer. The owner said the business had been locked at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 15.
Aug. 16, 11:34 a.m.: A catalytic converter was taken from a 2007 Toyota Prius on Walnut Street. The vehicle had been parked in the driveway on Aug. 14 and the missing catalytic converter was discovered on Aug. 15.
Aug. 16, 11:37 a.m.: A package was taken from an apartment building on Pleasant Street. The resident had ordered gold coins valued at $1,888 on July 21, and it was confirmed delivered on Aug. 4 in the front vestibule. The man went down to get it on Aug. 5 and it was missing.
Aug. 17, 1:08 p.m.: A Howe Street resident reported that the catalytic converter had been stolen from a 2009 Toyota Prius. It had been parked in front of the home on Aug. 14 and on Aug. 16 it was missing.
Aug.17, 8:08 p.m.: The owner of a 2005 Toyota Prius discovered the catalytic converter had been taken. The car had been parked there for five days. It was discovered missing on Aug. 16.
Aug. 17, 8:20 p.m.: Upland Road residents were awoken at about 3 a.m. when they heard a smashing noise. They looked around the interior but didn’t find anything. The next morning they went outside and found that the glass shattered in the bottom pane of the storm door located on the front of the house.
Aug. 18, 12:47 p.m.: A contractor working at 100 Forge Road in Arsenal Yards reported that construction equipment had been taken. The Hilty core drill, valued at $3,049, had been brought on to the site, but went missing sometime between Aug. 6 and Aug. 12.
Aug. 19, 12:12 p.m: Target security reported a vehicle that had been parked in the same spot for three days. Police went to investigate and found a white Ford F-550 that had been reported stolen from Rochester, New Hampshire on Aug. 15. Security footage showed an unknown male and female get out of the truck, walk into Target, take a threshold blanket and walk out of the back entrance of the Watertown Mall toward the bike path. The video was sent to police in Rochester, N.H.
Aug. 19, 6:54 p.m.: Police received a report of a catalytic converter taken from a 2004 Toyota Prius on Cypress Street. The vehicle had been parked there on Aug. 12 and the catalytic converter was discovered missing on Aug. 19.
All the catalytic converters we’re stolen from Toyota prius’s…why don’t the Watertown police put out some decoy cars and catch these thief’s….seems pretty easy to me
You want your tax dollars spent to buy decoy Prius cars?
Watertown police and town officials are clearly not doing their jobs.
And notice above that some criminals get arrested several times but are let go by so-called judges to commit more crimes. Ho-hum.
Criminals know that Watertown is an easy target.
I hope it’s OK to say these things. I posted a much stronger comment, but it did not see the light of day.
I would like to see Rep. Rogers and Sen. Brownsberger weigh in on crime. Ho-hum.
I do know that when swastikas appear on school restroom walls, THAT sort of crime is taken seriously. Ho-hum.
Nothing to see here, folks, move along.
There has always been crime and there always will be. Every local newspaper in the country has a crime report. In the age of social media, it has become the prompt for comments lacking in fact or evidence. It’s now a platform for the worst kind of divisive politics. Nothing ho-hum about it.
They don’t necessarily need to end up in a junkyard after they are stolen. Catalytic converters contain inside them very expensive metals such as platinum and rhodium. They are required to filter out harmful emissions. Those metals can be reclaimed and are very valuable.
The fact that they were stolen from a Prius’s could simple mean that they are easier to remove them compared to other vehicles. Also Prius uses more of those precious metals to filter out even more emissions.
So Dickie’s comment posted above isn’t such a bad idea. And besides, it’s OUR tax money.
Bait cars for thefts and breakins.
Widely used by those police departments who actually care about stopping crime.
GPS, video, and kill switches installed in them and in their catalytic converters.
Big bait packages with GPS in front of houses.
Crime is costing Watertown hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions, while Watertown happily collects many millions in new property tax revenue from biotech.
Ho-hum, it’s too much trouble to stop these crimes. And our state legislators have better things to do, such as giving drivers licenses to illegal aliens and complaining about a swastika drawn on a toilet stall by some errant teen.
Ho-hum.
As for those DAs and judges who let criminals go? Ho-hum.
Remember when there were neighborhood watch communities?
Concerned about crime and live here? Well, Watertown residents could work together with WPD to create a community watch network. It’s simplistic, and not very empowering, that people complain the police aren’t doing their job. Why not own a solution to crime in Watertown and prevent these types of thefts rather than complain?
Then you could come up with a nifty name, print T-shirts and hats or berets (support local printing businesses here in town) and signs that alert would-be criminals that Watertown is a Prius Watch Community – go to Cambridge there’s many Prius’ in the P.R.C.
Watertown residents empower yourself to prevent the scalawags from purloining Prius’ undercarriages in the first place. This way Watertown residents are part of the solution…
Full disclosure: I don’t own a Prius nor do I own stock in the company.
My 2 cents.