Brookline

The FBI is looking for a guy who's robbed three banks over the past couple of weeks, most recently, the Brookline Bank branch at 1016 Beacon St. yesterday.

The man, who appears to be a middle-aged Hispanic man according to police and surveillance photos, always gives a teller a note demanding cash, then makes his getaway on foot.

He's also wanted for hitting the Citizens Bank branch at 315 Harvard St. in Coolidge Corner on Jan. 26 and the Sovereign Bank branch at 487 Harvard St. near the TJ Maxx on Feb. 4.

Know him? Contact the FBI at 617-223-6136, ext. 6136.

If it's not shrimp-stealing desperadoes, it's vicious beasts. Brookline Patch reports:

Police were called to Tappan Street on Feb. 6 after someone reported a possum sitting on a fence.

Also note the first item on that Patch report, about the "shaking" pickup truck.

Wicked Local Brookline reports Brookline Police arrested a Brookline man on charges he tried to make off with eight bags of EZ Peel frozen shrimp from the Harvard Street Stop & Shop. Police were able to move in for the krill when the guy got stuck in traffic.

Samantha Rajotte tweets the announcement the conductor on her C trolley made at St. Mary's this morning:

Due to the extreme weather, this train will be going express to Aruba.

Take a look at this map of coyote sightings in Brookline, prepared by the Brookline PD's crime-analysis unit. Also see this analysis of the sightings and then prepare yourself with these tips. Don't let them intimidate you!

Scott Eisen reports this truck tried backing up into a driveway on James Street in Brookline this afternoon, only it got stuck so badly in a snowbank it took an hour to dig it out:

Brookline PD showed up, the cops were VERY helpful. They called the Highway Dept. and they all pitched in with shovels, sand etc. I was very surprised because I just expected typical city people, unhappy and unhelpful.

Copyright Scott Eisen. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

AlertNewEngland reports the Gulf station at Washington Street and Brookline Avenue was held up tonight.

Firefighters from Brookline and Boston battled the fire this morning at 71 Griggs Rd.

Turns out our entrant in the Miss America pageant next week is an Orthodox Jewish Harvard grad from Brookline. Should Loren Galler Rabinowitz win the crown, she'd be the first Jewish Miss America since 1945. The Forward reports.

Via Solomonia.

Wicked Local Brookline reports on the Devotion School's plan for bringing back the pledge.

Koffi Gbikpi, who runs a Tampa-based organization called the Christian Missionary Foundation, but who recently moved to Brookline, was arraigned today on charges he tried to defraud a Boston bank with bogus checks.

Gbikpi deposited checks at Boston Private Bank that were "fraudulently obtained as part of an alleged check kiting scheme," the Suffolk County District Attorney's office says.

Boston Police had some more details on Gbikpi's alleged scheme, which they said involved a number of banks across Massachusetts:

At the intersection of Goddard Avenue and Rockwood Street in Brookline, not far from another banner that says bicyclists are people, too, so don't kill them. In the minute or so I stood there (it is, quite possibly, one of the worst places for a person to stand in all of greater Boston, thanks to the 17th-century layout of a curvy road now used as a shortcut), I saw neither smoke nor steam.

Wicked Local Brookline reports on the terrifying incident on Gardner Road. And remember, these two-bit tom toughs have drawn blood.

Wicked Local Brookline reports a Brookline firefighter was arrested on charges he drove up to 90 mph while drunk on Rte. 9.

Rabbi Benjamin Shalva, who moved from Virginia in August to lead Temple Reyim in Newton, quickly found himself faced with some major tsouris:

Lyrics.

Via Chuck Tanowitz.

Wicked Local Brookline reports authorities now say that among the thousands of images they found when they arrested Robert E. Higgins, Jr. in August were photos of himself wearing the pajamas and underwear of a teen girl whose house he had broken into.

Innocent, etc.

Brookline Patch reports a Texan staying with some friends in Brookline was arrested for stealing letters off the top of the Stanetsky funeral home on Beacon Street after police noticed the roof of the chapel could be reached from the suspiciously open window of a neighboring apartment building.

Kat Cornetta reports the twin fighter jets that zoomed at near-treetop level over Brookline Village around 10 a.m. - and which could be heard as far away as Weston - were part of a Boston University salute at Nickerson Field to ROTC and to alumni who have served in the military.

Brookline Police report a woman was robbed around 9:45 p.m. yesterday at Brook and Kent streets.

The victim stated that as she was walking home, a dark colored SUV cut in front of her, causing her to stop. A male suspect then opened the front passenger side door, threatened her with a gun, and stole her bag.

William McAdoo sings the praises of the Meat House butcher shop in Brookline - which also carries cheese (Roslindale residents, of course, know about Tony's on Washington Street).

Aaron Gouveia videoed his confrontation with two anti-abortion protesters outside Women's Health Services on Harvard Street earlier this year. He accompanied his wife there to have an abortion after doctors told them their 16-week-old fetus, the one they'd already picked out a name for, had mermaid syndrome, no kidneys, no bladder and no chance of surviving. And, he writes (cached version), he couldn't take it when these two women started screaming at his wife:

... Hell is watching her entire body convulse with sobs because she's being tortured with grief. For as long as I live and no matter how many children we have, I will never forget that sound. And I vowed to do everything in my power to make sure she’d never make it again.

Across a crowded street, two people with "God Is Pro-Life!" signs and pictures of torn-up fetuses managed to drive the blade in even deeper. Again, I was left trying to console the inconsolable, feeling even more helpless this time, because I wasn't allowed into surgery with her.

Running on pure adrenaline, and without even a hint of a plan, I grabbed my cell phone and crossed the street. ...

H/t Michael and Salon.

UPDATE: Victim identified as recent BU graduate living in Brighton. See comments.

The MBTA reports:

On October 24, 2010 at 12:19am Green Line operations notified the MBTA Transit Police of an accident between Longwood and Fenway on the D Line. A number of units were dispatched. Brookline Police and Fire Departments were notified and upon arrival with EMS determined the incident to be a fatality. Initial investigation indicated the person was struck by an eastbound trolley. He was found in the gauge of the eastbound track, west of Fenway Station. This area of the tracks is fenced on both sides.

MBTA General Manager Rich Davey reports the first three-car train will pull out of Riverside station 7 a.m. on Monday, with a second to follow at 8:30 a.m. In e-mail, he writes:

We're starting this up on a trial basis as personnel from the Green Line and Power Department closely monitor the performance of the train and the D branch itself. If all goes well, we plan to increase the number of trips made by 3-car trains and expand the program to the B branch. You are probably aware that the Riverside and Boston College lines are the longest branches of the Green Line. All of the train platforms on the D and B branches can accommodate 3-car train sets.

He says this is the first time the Green Line will see three-car trains in five years. What spurred the return, he says, were comments from a number of customers asking for increased capacity during rush hour, at a "Join the GM" session at Riverside last month.

He adds that in the afternoon, there'll be three-car trains at 4 and 5:40 p.m.

Wicked Local Brookline gives us the he said/they said version of a selectmen's meeting involving a reception at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum shut down by a detail officer who either thought guests were getting served too much booze or who was out of control, depending on whom you ask.

Now selectmen have to decide whether to continue granting temporary liquor licenses to the museum for weddings and other events.

All the way in the back