Never borrow money from Southie residents if you can't pay it back

A federal jury today convicted a South Boston man of being a thug who helped shake down a Back Bay real-estate agent in hock to a South Boston broker.

Patrick Dehertogh, 48, will be sentenced in January, along with David Gefke, the Southie broker who hired him and two other thugs to go after the broker over a $90,000 debt related to a condo renovation at 263 Commonwealth Ave. in the Back Bay. Gefke and the other two boyos pleaded guilty earlier this month.

According to FBI affidavits, Dehertogh, Michael Lee and Brandon Milby repeatedly threatened the Back Bay broker and his family over the course of several days in meeting at his office and at the Four Seasons Hotel, where he lives and where he parks his Bentley.

"I don't want to interrupt your life at the Four Seasons or your daughter at Boston College," Lee told the broker, identified only as "John Doe," at their first meeting. "If I need to find your Bentley, I will. I want $10,000 now and I want another $10,000 later." He demanded Doe give him the watch he was wearing - and hand over the rest of his watch collection, which he did a couple days later at a Charles Street Starbucks.

Unfortunately for Lee and his boys, Doe had contacted police, and a plainclothes detective was stationed nearby and heard the whole thing. The FBI said Doe contacted police in part because he was scared that the thugs knew so much about him - Gefke allegedly told him he had a source in the State Police digging up info.

FBI affidavit on Dehertogh.