Fort Point Channel

Fort Point to Tom Menino: Bite us

adamg — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:06:26 -0500

Residents furious the mayor now backs a plan to turn two vacant warehouses on Summer Street into offices instead of housing, the Herald reports, in a story that actually only quotes one resident, an "activist who declined to be identified," which kind of lessens the impact of the story.

The Great Light Way

adamg — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:54:02 -0400

Greg MacKay snapped the Moakley Bridge, all lit up for Illuminale Boston.

More Illuminale Boston photos.

Boston: The Dustin Pedroia of cities

adamg — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 08:50:59 -0400

Sure, it's small, but it packs a punch.

Dave, meanwhile, writes how fortunate he is to live near the massive Westwood Station development and work in rapidly changing Fort Point Channel.

He goes up, up and away with his beautiful balloons; police bring him down to earth

adamg — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:18:39 -0400

Boston Police report a rooftop arrest of a South Boston teen for painting large balloons without permission on the side of 285 Summer St. shortly after 3 a.m. today:

According to the police dispatcher, the suspect was spray-painting a wall on the 9th floor in the rear of 285 Summer Street. On arrival, officers observed the suspect standing on a fire escape. Upon seeing the officers, the suspect climbed up on the roof of the building. Upon reaching the roof of the building, officers located the suspect. Officers observed that the suspect was covered in paint.

Reflections

adamg — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:49:13 -0400

Lyetteann captures a downtown reflection on a Fort Point Channel building.

Weaning keening gulls over Fort Point Channel

adamg — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:15:53 -0400

Spatch watches, and listens in as a couple of women provide some color commentary.

Art crime

adamg — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:44:06 -0400

The Fort Point Cultural Coalition's Windows onto Fort Point project consists of 25 pieces of art mounted in various locations in the neighborhood (in particular, along A Street).

Naturally, somebody stole three of the pieces. One has been recovered, but this one and this one are still missing.

Know where they are or have information about them? E-mail the coalition or call the BPD at 617-343-4742 and tell them it's about case #080-310-503.

It's a miracle!

adamg — Wed, 28 May 2008 10:13:11 -0400

Greg MacKay marvels at a gull along Fort Point Channel that obviously just returned from a trip to Lourdes.

Indictment paints picture of massive credit-card fraud at Fort Point Channel hardware store

adamg — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 10:31:59 -0500

Erik Joseph, the former owner of Seaport Hardware arrested on a single larceny charge last month, now faces 46 fraud charges related to abuse of customer credit-card information.

And that's only the beginning, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office: The grand jury that indicted Joseph only looked at American Express transactions; another grand jury is looking into Visa and MasterCard transactions. DA Dan Conley says that today's charges involved $291,000 in alleged thefts from customer accounts:

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Evidence suggests that Joseph began the scam in 2001 and continued it for the next six years. Prosecutors believe he set up dozens of shell businesses, each with its own credit card merchant number, bank account routing number, and mailing address; using the credit card numbers of his hardware store’s customers, he would then key in transactions that billed unsuspecting cardholders for multiple sales that were just under $200.

At the beginning of the scheme, Conley said, Joseph would wait four to six months before billing the victims; in 2006 and 2007, the time delay disappeared and accounts were being maxed out within days of the cardholders' visits to Seaport Hardware. Once the credit card company had transferred funds to the bank account linked to the transaction, evidence suggests, Joseph would drain the account and leave the victims unable to reclaim the money.

Joseph is scheduled for arraignment Jan. 15 in Suffolk Superior Court on today's charges.

Former owner of Fort Point Channel hardware store charged with defrauding customers

adamg — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:36:15 -0500

A Fort Point Channel building made infamous two years ago with the strange death of an MIT-trained artist is once again the focus of a criminal investigation - this time for massive credit-card fraud.

The Suffolk County District Attorney's office today charged Erik Joseph, former owner of Seaport Hardware, 369 Congress St., with defrauding customers across New England out of several hundred thousand dollars since 2005.

The store is in the same building as that meth lab that turned out not to be a meth lab where artist Kevin McCormick died in unusual circumstances in 2005.

Joseph, a Belmont resident, pleaded innocent at his arraignment this morning in South Boston District Court, according to the DA's office. Bail was set at $75,000.

According to prosecutors, Joseph set up a series of bogus companies to suck out and launder money from the accounts of people who paid for hardware purchases with credit cards. In a statement, the DA's office cited one example:

Joseph allegedly used a dummy business – for which he had obtained an American Express merchant number, a post office box, and a bank account – to bill the customer's credit card for $8,087 in 43 separate charges of less than $200 in the weeks and months that followed. That money, [DA Dan] Conley said, was deposited into a corresponding bank account, which Joseph later emptied and closed.

Prosecutors said they, a statewide financial-crimes task force and the US Postal Service were not done investigating Joseph, but that they sought charges against him now because he sold the store last month and was emptying his legitimate bank accounts, making them worry he was getting ready to flee the area. Boston Police arrested him in Belmont on Tuesday.

Even before the indictment, Joseph, a 1980 Emerson College graduate, got a couple of bad Yelp reviews.