Tis the season: Window smashers return to Newbury Street

Boston Police report arresting two men early Tuesday on smash-and-grab charges.

According to police, around 2:40 a.m., a beat cop watched two guys walk up to the window at the Armani shop at 22 Newbury St., look in, saunter into the Public Garden, then return and strike the window with a brick wrapped in a sock.

Police say the pair snatched a purse, but didn't get a chance to show it off at a ball because the cop chased them, catching the dude with the purse as officers called up on the radio went after the other guy - whom witnesses told police was busy running down Berkeley toward Comm. Ave.

John S. Dowd, 29, of Winthrop, and Kevin Wells, 34, of Boston, were charged with breaking and entering in the nighttime. Allegedly, police overheard Wells telling his mother on his free phone call "you can forget about me for the holidays, I'm gonna have to go back to the joint. I hid in the bushes for a little while but I guess I didn’t stay long enough."

Innocent, etc.