West Roxbury

Boston Police report arresting a West Roxbury teen on charges he tried to hold up the McDonald's behind his house at gunpoint Saturday morning. Police say they were aided in their search by footprints in fresh snow leading from the restaurant to his house.

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Both the Globe and the Herald report an E-5 detective and three officers are on paid leave while BPD investigates their overtime-pay appearances at West Roxbury District Court for cases for which they may not have been required to attend.

District E-5 reports somebody with a Jamaican area code is dialing up elderly residents informing them they'd won that country's lottery - but would first have to wire some money to collect their winnings.

Police say they were alerted when two residents called them on Saturday to complain that after they rejected the calls, the calls from the 876 area code continued.

Both victims who filed these reports were able to decipher that this phone call was in fact a scam. They did not relay any personal information nor did they send any money, and they contacted 9-1-1 when the caller continued with the harassing calls. These callers did exactly what we recommend when encountering this kind of crime.

Boston Fireman tweets the flaming manhole on Gertrude Street generated high-enough levels of carbon monoxide to have residents of several homes evacuated around 5:45 p.m. today.

On the way home from a hunt for salt this evening, I spotted an open space in front of North of the Border Mexican Grill on Washington Street in West Roxbury. I'd never been there, and figured I'd pick up some tacos and quesadillas.

But it turned out this is not your average Mexican place. The place is owned by a Guatemalan guy, and one of the first things I saw on the menu was pupusas. Pupusas. Now, I don't bat an eye at the Venezuelan arepas and empanadas you can get down the street, maybe because that place has been there awhile now, but pupusas? In West Roxbury? Get out! The menu is full of other stuff you wouldn't see at Wapo Taco or even Romano's - even a couple of Colombian dishes and breakfast.

But I went with simple: Pork and cheese pupusas. I'm no pupusa expert, but these were great. The owner - one of the friendliest and chattiest I've ever met - said I'd be back. He was right: I need to try the rellenitos, the camarones al ajillo and all the other things on the menu I've never heard of.

North of the Border: 5272 Washington St. (look for the blue awning, on the same side of Washington as Cristelle's). 617-469-2100.

Sean Roche photographed the flooding on the VFW Parkway in West Roxbury this afternoon, not long before temperatures went below freezing again.

7 a.m., Centre Street, West Roxbury. Across the street, the Cooperative Bank sign read -19 C.

A Dorchester man whom police say had an unwitting friend drive him from Savin Hill to a bank holdup in West Roxbury has been indicted in US District Court in Boston.

If convicted, Andrew Higgins, 43, faces up to 20 years in federal prison and more than $250,000 in fines and restitution under the indictment, handed down last month but announced today.

Police say Higgins told his friend he needed to "cash a check" at the Hyde Park Savings Bank on Centre Street. As the friend waited outside, police say, Higgins donned a ski mask, robbed the bank, then came out with $3,110 and told his friend to hightail it out of there.

Innocent, etc.

The West Roxbury Shaw's still had some of these for sale today - granted, with $1 off with a Shaw's card, but, really, who would buy one?

Wicked Local West Roxbury reports Rush, newly elected Suffolk/Norfolk state senator and longtime Naval Reserve officer, is being shipped out to Iraq as an intelligence officer in March.

BTD is seeking the public's help in finding traffic lights obscured by ice, such as these puppies on Washington Street at the West Roxbury Parkway, where southbound motorists, being Bostonians, are just barreling through the intersection rather than stopping to see if maybe motorists on the parkway (or the opposite direction on Washington) have the light. Call 617-635-4500 to request a deicing crew.

Since we couldn't get to the gym yesterday we did a modified late night workout at Hynes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL9vxsNa1J4

The billboard atop the Corrib these days. What would be really funny is if it were just the first in a series: "There are lots of pizza places in West Roxbury," followed by "There are lots of funeral homes in West Roxbury."

Oh, and the Cooperative Bank is continuing the new Westie trend of banks moving from Centre to Spring Street - it's moving into much larger quarters in the old police-supply place near the Shaw's. One wonders if its current location across from the Hyde Park Savings Bank will be filled by the Surly Bank (whoever moves in, though, needs to keep the electronic time/temperature sign, because it's always fun to see how it never agrees with the sign at the Hyde Park bank).

I wasn't the only person to go up to Millennium Park as the storm started; there was a guy walking around one of the lower soccer fields, around 1 p.m., along with a couple of kids with a sled.

Boston Police report arresting a man and a woman on charges they held up a Dunkin' Donuts and a convenience store in Roslindale - and that they might have been getting ready to stick up a drug store when officers arrived.

UPDATE: The Globe reports the standoff ended peacefully after two hours when police rushed the car.

AlertNewEngland reports that Heldun Street (off Gardner Street and behind the old Stop & Shop parking lot) is shut off at this hour after a man drove through backyards and then rammed a police cruiser. Nearby residents were evacuated.

Courtney Sacco captured the scene last night:

Copyright Courtney Sacco. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Boston Police report the three guys who held up the Speedy Market on Washington Street at gunpoint last week hightailed it across town, where they used the credit cards they grabbed from a clerk and a customer to load up on goodies at the Best Buy and Target stores at the South Bay mall.

Police released this photo of one of the suspects.

If you see him, call Det. Kinkead or Det. McCarthy at E-5, 617-343-4595.

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Dave Johnson penned this ode to Westie.

Compare to Roslindale.

AlertNewEngland tweets Speedy Market, 4899 Washington St., was held up this afternoon by three black men with a gun.

Boston Police report arresting a pair of teens yesterday morning after they allegedly robbed a guy of both an iPod and a BlackBerry outside the Tedeschi store at Spring and Centre streets in West Roxbury, then hopped on a bus bound for Forest Hills.

According to police, Julio M. Gonzalez, 17, of Dorchester, and David J. Mosley-Lott, 17, of Roxbury, stuck the guy up around 11:30 a.m., hoofed it down Centre Street, then flagged down and got on a bus across from the West Roxbury BPL branch. Two detail cops heard a radio broadcast about the incident, stopped the bus down at Centre and Willow streets and made the arrests.

Innocent, etc.

A West Roxbury resident forwards the note she got when she expressed her concern about that Globe story to the folks at the Upper Crust on Centre Street:

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?