Hyde Park

Boston Police report a man who jumped the counter at Asian Thai Eatery and grabbed money out of the hands of the cashier around 7:30 p.m. yesterday just as quickly found himself grabbed and surrounded by her and cooks.

When police arrived, they arrested Joe Mulhern, 30, of New Bedford on a charge of unarmed robbery.

Innocent, etc.

Ed. note: The cooks were probably on him pretty quick: It's a fairly small place, the counter's right in front of the doorway to the kitchen. And I wouldn't be surprised if they were armed with those cleavers they use for ribs.

A Westminster Street resident was ordered held in lieu of $100,000 bail yesterday after his arraignment on charges he was storing various illegal items in his attic, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office says.

Photo by Boston Fire Department.

UPDATE: Firefighters were still finding "small pockets of fire" at 12:30 a.m., BFD reports. All out finally sounded at 2:43 a.m. House declared a total loss. Five feet of water in the basement.

There were cop cars all over Fairmount Hill in HP this morning (1/5) between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. -- anyone know what was happening?

The Globe reports on a meeting between residents and city officials over violence along Wood Avenue, which has its own homegrown gang and which saw five shootings last year. According to the Globe, police said one of the problems is that some of the gangbangers have parents who live on or near the street, which means they don't have landlords on which to put pressure to evict them.

Between the Tedeschi and the New York Fried Chicken on River Street is this tiny "park" that's an extension of the municipal parking lot. The city hasn't plowed the sidewalk out front, and apparently neither the scratch-ticket people nor the chicken people cared enough about their customers or other pedestrians to spend the extra 15 minutes to shovel it out, either. But then, why bother? It's only Hyde Park's main street.

Ed. note: When I got home, I filed a complaint via the city's newish Android Citizen Connect app. I wonder if the Snow Police will fine themselves.

The Ross Field Neighborhood Crime Watch meets with public-safety officials on Thursday to discuss the five shootings along Wood Avenue this year (most recently, a man shot in the head on Dec. 18) - up from none last year.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the E-18 police station on Hyde Park Avenue in Cleary Square. Among those scheduled to attend are Dan Mulhern, chief of the Suffolk County District Attorney's gang unit, and Mark Prisco, chief probation officer at West Roxbury District Court.

Boston Police report the U-Haul at 672 Truman Parkway was held up at gunpoint this morning:

Three suspects, described as three black males with scarves on their faces, entered the store, showed a firearm and demanded money. After taking an undisclosed amount of money, the suspects fled the store.

UPDATE: Police report the victim told them four men approached him in his driveway and one took out a gun and shot him in the face. A friend then drove him to Carney Hospital.

A 24-year-old man who survived getting shot in the head Saturday night on at 206 Wood Ave. was an active member of the Wood Avenue Eagles gang, according to a neighborhood source. Police told the Globe the man was known to them, although they did not identify him.

The Eagles, who favor the dark green of the Philadelphia Eagles, tend to feud with gangs from Colorado and Favre streets on the other side of Cummins Highway in Mattapan. Police have not charged anyone for the shooting.

He's in the running not because of any particular driving tics on Washington Street in West Roxbury this evening, but because of the bumper stickers adorning the back of his Jeep. OK, I do not know for a fact he lives in Hyde Park, but who else would slap an "Entering Hyde Park" sticker on their car?

Boston Police report a pair of guys claiming to work for Boston animal control tried to gruff-talk their way into a home on Sherrin Street in Hyde Park.

Police say a woman reported that two guys approached her at home around 2 p.m. on Tuesday and:

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The Boston Fire Department reports a fire that broke out around 1 p.m. at 47 Lewiston St. caused about $50,000 in damage and sent one firefighter to the hospital with a neck injury.

The department says that while the cause of the blaze remains under investigation, it "appears accidental."

As the second customer to enter the POW!, all-new, improved Hyde Park YMCA this morning, I have seen the future and it's OK. Normally, I bike (or in terrible weather drive) 4.5 miles to the West Roxbury branch. Come sleet and bitter cold, I suspect one three quarters of a mile down the hill will be more to our liking.

District City Councilor Rob Consalvo has been flogging this rehab in the most glorious terms, as well as updating all on when it would actually open for swim and sweat. He's an insider, as his wife, Michelle, is development coordinator. This seemed to drag on but it did open as he promised before the end of November.

The good (with WR in mind):

• Machines, from spin bikes to circuit equipment to free weights and beyond are all new and high end
• Lighting is even and bright throughout the building
• The 25-yard pool is gorgeous and has wide lanes
• Shower heads are adjustable and water pressure is strong
• Lockers are in great shape, with plenty of interior hooks and, mirabile dictu, sequential numbering
• Lots of treadmills

Would James Rush have gotten the promotion without the recommend from his son, state legislator Mike Rush? I wonder how the other applicants feel about whether they had an equal opportunity for the position.

Does it seem strange that as an employee of the probation department, his own son's recommendation might have had more weight than his own history of job performance in the probation department?

At 5:24, mhowardkarp tweeted from Hyde Park:

Just saw a woman jogging naked and barefoot on the sidewalk. At rush hour.

A few minutes later, Boston fire crews responded to the West Street bridge over the Amtrak/commuter-rail tracks for a report of a possible jumper. Crews didn't find anybody, but did find the naked woman back by Hyde Park Avenue, where they got her into an ambulance for evaluation.

Boston Police report that when officers arrived at the scene of a reported house break-in on a quiet Hyde Park street yesterday afternoon, they quickly collared two of the three guys they saw running away and into the nearby Stony Brook Reservation. Police add that officers soon returned to the area and spotted the alleged third suspect:

While following behind the suspect, officers watched the suspect approach a residence and knock on the door. At this point, officers confronted the suspect. When asked what he was doing, the suspect stated, "I'm going to my cousin’s house." However, when officers spoke to the resident, the resident stated that she did not who the suspect was.

And that, police say, is how Adrian Escobar, 19, got to rejoin William Lara, 18, and Franklin Baez, 18, down at E-18 to be booked on charges of breaking and entering at the end of Dedham Street.

Innocent, etc.

Crack is behind firefighter on the right.

The city shut the River Street bridge over the Amtrak and commuter-rail lines for about 90 minutes late this afternoon because of excessive vibrations motorists felt as they drove outbound from Cleary Square.

The bridge was re-opened shortly before 6 p.m. after engineers determined the bridge was safe to drive over and would not come tumbling down on the train tracks underneath. Even after the bridge was re-opened, however, a couple of highway engineers from MassDOT stood guard over the trouble area, a patch roughly three feet wide in which the asphalt had given way and the planks underneath made a clanging sound as vehicles drove over it.

Traffic was backed up on both ends of River Street, Hyde Park Avenue in both directions and on Summer Street, which parallels Hyde Park Avenue. But traffic in Cleary Square itself never reached gridlock as Boston police officers kept the cars moving. Trains along the busy tracks were ordered to slow down as they passed under the bridge.

At least one person was taken away in serious condition after a collision between a car and a tree at Hyde Park and Metropolitan avenues shortly after noon.

Police shut the two streets to let accident investigators try to figure out what happened. An Nstar pickup truck at the scene had some damage to its left rear panel. The car came to rest right next to a tree with its bark torn off in front of an auto-repair shop.

One poor guy stood at the intersection, repeatedly calling his wife's cell phone. She was supposed to pick him up right there; he got there to see the remains of the accident, his wife nowhere in sight and her phone going straight to voice mail. A reporter told him she thought the only vehicles involved were the car and the pickup.

Bob Houser, whose house exploded yesterday, asked Mayor Tom Menino for help tonight.

An NStar official told 100 Readville residents tonight that workers for the contractor who managed to blow up a house yesterday nicked another gas line nearby two days ago. Bill McCabe, director of gas distribution for NStar, which services the Danny Road area, said at the time, a company inspector did not think the damage to the plastic line, done with a hand shovel, was troublesome, but as a precaution had several feet of the pipe replaced.

Remains of a house: Photo by Boston Fire Department.

A Readville home was completely destroyed in a fireball this morning when a backhoe being used by contractors for the Boston Water and Sewer Commission hit a natural-gas main out front.

Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald says a contractor doing water-main work in the neighborhood was digging up the street at Danny and Reynold roads with a backhoe around 8:30 a.m. when he not only hit the gas main, but pulled it up - with such force it pulled the house's gas meter off the wall. The house immediately began filling with gas, and two workers ran up and began banging on the door to try to get anybody inside out. They were just heading back down the stairs when the house exploded, he said.

He said two people live in the house - one was on vacation and one was at work. He added it's amazing nobody in the surrounding area was hurt. A second house may have also been damaged beyond repair and the force of the explosion not only shattered windows, it pushed entire window frames into buildings for a couple of blocks around. A detail cop was in his car, moving it at the request of the contractors, when the house exploded.

MacDonald said investigators from a variety of city and state agencies are on scene trying to determine how the contractors managed to hit the main - a key question is whether they contacted DigSafe, which provides gas-main information for people digging up streets, and if so, if they were told about the specific main. The explosion caused an estimated $1 million in damage to the neighborhood, he said.

Residents of some 30 nearby homes were evacuated. MacDonald said they are slowly being let back in as NStar - which provides gas in that area - checks each home.

AlertNewEngland tweets the Citizens Bank inside the Shaw's at 1377 Hyde Park Ave. was robbed by a guy with a gun late this afternoon.

According to the FBI, the guy, who couldn't even have been bothered to pull his shades down in an attempt to hide his face, "fled in an unknown direction."

If he looks familar, contact Special Agent Rolands at 617-223-6228.

A fire tonight at 265 West St., across from the West Street playground, displaced eight adults and two children, Boston Police tweet.

Police are investigating how a man came by to be shot in the hand today at 219 Huntington Ave.