So let me get this straight: they can catch the craigslist killer in a matter of days but they can't find this guy and his accomplice?
Something is a STANKIN', folks!!!
Related: Weirdness in Wellesley
"FBI joins Needham police investigating bomb scare" by Lisa Kocian, Globe Staff | March 26, 2009
The FBI has joined an investigation underway in Needham this week after a suspicious device was attached to a public telephone near a school. Authorities are still trying to determine whether it was a bomb.
"We are going to be sending it for evaluation to see if it meets the legal definition of a destructive device," said FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz. Needham police described the object as a "suspicious device with wires" that was found Monday attached to a pay phone at the St. Bartholomew Church parking lot next to Great Plain Avenue. It bore a note that referred to Needham High School, authorities said.
Yesterday Police Chief Thomas Leary met with a local leader of the Anti-Defamation League to discuss the incident.
WTF for?
The chief asked for the meeting to consult with the ADL "on language associated with the incident," said Derrek Shulman, regional director of the ADL New England office, who attended the meeting yesterday with two local rabbis.
Shulman declined to describe the language. He said there are unanswered questions about the meaning or intent of the words used. "At ADL, we're very careful about what we label as anti-Semitism, and we are not comfortable at this time calling it an anti-Semitic incident," he said. "There are no indications that this is connected to any type of organized activity in the area," Shulman added.
WTF? What are they covering up and why?
Related: How to spot a Hate Crime Hoax
It Came in a Letter
When ‘Hate crimes’ are self-inflicted
Another Fake Hate Crime
Student Admits to Drawing Swastika In a written statement to The Quindecim, the Goucher student newspaper, Julian Rees said he carved one swastika in a bathroom wall of Shira Zemel's apartment. Rees, who is Jewish, says he didn't carve the other swastikas which were found outside of Zemel's apartment and down the hall near the elevators."
3 arrested after anti-Semitic messages found in Pikesville One of the men is a member of Baltimore Hebrew Congregation in the 5500 block of Slade Ave,. where the word Nazi and a swastika were spray-painted on signs. The incidents are not being treated as hate crimes
WTF? WHY NOT? If they were WHITE AMERICANS or MUSLIMS, it CERTAINLY WOULD BE!!!!!!!
But because they are FALSE-FLAGGING JEW TERRORISTS it is NOT a hate crime?
Please, stop it!
Leary confirmed the meeting with Shulman but would not comment on it. The device and the note were found when police responded to a 911 hang-up call Monday from the phone where the object was found.
"A safe perimeter was immediately established, and the State Police bomb squad was requested to respond," Leary said. "When the bomb technicians examined the device more closely, they found a note attached to the device that referenced Needham High School."
Needham High was evacuated Monday, but classes resumed Tuesday, after a search of the school. Needham police and the FBI did not release any other details. Marcinkiewicz said that there is no timeline for when the device might be evaluated, but that it will probably be sent to the FBI's lab in Quantico, Va.
--more--"So what was it?
"Suspicious device left at Needham bank; FBI says robber may be tied to Wellesley holdup" by Eric Moskowitz, Globe Staff | April 4, 2009
NEEDHAM - Just hours after a man robbed a Needham bank and left a suspicious device at the counter yesterday, the FBI offered $25,000 for information leading to his arrest, saying they believe he could be the man involved in a similar robbery in Wellesley last week.
Dressed in a black hooded sweatshirt, the man robbed the TD Banknorth branch in Needham Center and left the device at the teller's window before fleeing on foot up Great Plain Avenue toward Wellesley, just before 4 p.m., police Lieutenant John Schlittler said.
Security camera footage from the bank showed the man, gloves on his hands and his face covered, approach a teller with what appeared to be a gun in his right hand. He placed a bag on the counter and removed what looked like three sticks of dynamite bound together.
Neither the FBI nor Needham police would say what the device was or if it was a genuine bomb, only that the crime was similar to a March 26 robbery at a
This SMELLS, folks!
"The events are similar, and we believe they're connected," FBI spokeswoman Gail A. Marcinkiewicz said last night. Multiple witnesses said the man got into a "small, boxlike" car, green or blue, driven by a woman, Marcinkiewicz said.
Although the FBI is treating the Needham and Wellesley bank robberies "as one event," Marcinkiewicz would not say if the FBI considered them to be linked with similar incidents. On March 23, police found a device with wires connected to it attached to a pay phone in the parking lot of St. Bartholomew Church in Needham, along with a note that referred to Needham High School, which was evacuated.
Three days before that, a bomb scare was called into South Elementary School in Holbrook minutes before the nearby Randolph Savings Bank was robbed. The culprit fled in a green 2009
"I asked him, 'Is this a bomb threat, or is it a bomb?' He said, 'No, it's a bomb,' " said Cory Lewkowicz, who was with her son at an acupuncture appointment at the Needham Wellness Center when it and dozens of other businesses were forced to shut down and evacuate.
Police cordoned off a broad section of Needham Center after the robbery, clearing restaurants and shops and rerouting traffic for about two hours. Yellow caution tape ran across Great Plain Avenue and other downtown streets, encircled the town common, and even snaked around a bronze statue of children dancing and playing.
With a mix of nervousness, surprise, and awe, local residents and shopkeepers huddled under awnings, beyond the police tape, as they watched a bomb squad robot move about in the rain.
Huh, robots.
"Did you see that? That little remote control chair is moving all over the place," said Mary Collins, who owns the Abode antiques and home furnishing store, from her awning at Great Plain and Dedham avenues. Calling Needham a "Norman Rockwell town," she said she was stunned by the development.
--more--"I'm sorry, readers, but something is a stinking!
"Needham, Wellesley on edge after bank heists, bomb threats" by Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff | April 8, 2009
On three occasions in as many weeks, the affable shuffle of life in Needham and Wellesley has been disrupted by bomb threats, armed bank robberies, and law enforcement's immediate response to those crimes. A town center, a church, and a supermarket were cordoned off as bomb squads went to work.
"It's caused a fear, certainly, among the people who work at those places and fear of the unknown among residents," Wellesley's police chief, Terrence Cunningham, said after a news conference yesterday with FBI officials in downtown Boston.
Authorities announced during the event that they are upping the reward, from $25,000 to $32,500, for information that leads to the arrest of the perpetrator or accomplices. Noreen Gleason, an FBI assistant special agent in charge, said all three crimes appear to be connected, given the suspect's clothing, the timing, and the similarity of the three "suspicious devices" left behind. Gleason said the reward has been increased because "we consider these to be egregious acts of violence."
The first incident occurred in Needham on March 23. A suspicious device was left near a pay phone in the St. Bartholomew Parish parking lot next to Great Plain Avenue after an unidentified person made a 911 call from the phone at 1 p.m. and hung up.
Then, on March 26 in Wellesley, at approximately 3:45 p.m., police responded to a 911 hang-up call at the Star Market at 448 Washington St. and found a suspicious device on a pay phone. Fifteen minutes later, a man wearing a mask, hat, and sunglasses robbed the
On Friday in Needham, a disguised male entered a TD Banknorth branch on Great Plain Avenue, walked up to a teller, and said he was carrying a bomb. The suspect showed a gun, took an undisclosed sum, and fled in a waiting car, the FBI said.
Andrew McSherry was inside a barbershop at Needham Center that day with his 13-year-old son, Sam, when several firetrucks and police cruisers arrived on the scene. He initially thought that a building was on fire or that there had been a car accident, but when police began putting up yellow tape, he walked outside to inquire.
Authorities didn't tell him what was going on, but a passerby told him that an armed bank robbery with a bomb threat had just occurred at the bank a short distance away. His daughter, Sarah, 12, was attending piano lessons not far from there, and their house is a short walk from the center.
"It's a bit concerning that some guy is running around with a gun robbing banks with kids in the area," McSherry said yesterday. "I've lived here for 20 years, and it's the closet thing to Mayberry. I don't think this guy will strike here again, but then again, who knows."
????
Needham's police chief, Thomas Leary, said "as with every serious crime that occurs in town, we're very concerned with it and will do everything we can to keep our residents safe."
The State Police bomb squad responded to all the bomb threats and "rendered them safe," Gleason said. The FBI's crime lab in Quantico, Va., is analyzing the devices. Gleason said there has been no determination yet as to whether they were actual bombs.--more--"
I guess there was no reason to be on edge because nothing has happened in three weeks. Something about the whole case reeks, folks, and reading the newspaper isn't going to help clear it up.
