Blue Christmas for Boston crooks

Blue Christmas for Boston crooks

‘WE ARE A STEP AHEAD OF YOU’: City employee Brooke Woodson, flanked by Mayor Tom Menino and Boston police Commissioner Edward Davis, holds up one of the bass guitars yesterday that were recovered during a sting in Downtown Crossing.
Photo by Angela Rowlings
By Renee Nadeau Algarin  |   Friday, December 24, 2010  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage


The small jewelry store opened in Downtown Crossing just in time for the Christmas shopping season, catering to a special class of clientele: the criminal class.

Maybe the shop’s name, MIB Jewelers — as in Men in Blue — should have been a tip-off, but unwitting crooks began flocking merrily to the sting operation the day it opened, Commissioner Edward Davis said yesterday. Undercover cops had put the word out they were willing to buy stolen goods at the store at 365 Washington St. in Downtown Crossing, and there were plenty of sellers.

“To all the criminals out there, know this,” Mayor Thomas M. Menino said yesterday, flanked by Davis and District Attorney Daniel Conley. “We are a step ahead of you.”

The operation, which was manned by two undercover cops and outfitted with security cameras, recovered more than 230 stolen items and helped police obtain 24 arrest warrants.

The police took no chances, even using the laws of capitalism to catch the thieves: In advance of MIB’s grand opening, the department cut out the competition by busting eight other stores suspected of fencing property.

“It’s much more difficult today to sell stolen goods than it was two weeks ago,” Davis said,

Along with cell phones, Xbox consoles, boxed cashmere sweaters and flat-screen TVs, police got back three guitars stolen from city employee Brooke Woodson, whose home was burgled Dec. 9.

“I was just so disheartened. It was just a sinking feeling, especially this time of year,” recalled a relieved Woodson as he cradled one of his beloved guitars in the fake store yesterday.



A suspect in the burglary at Woodson’s home, Nestor Mota-Diaz, 18, was arraigned in West Roxbury District Court on two counts of receiving stolen property over $250 and ordered held without bail on two outstanding warrants, according to Conley’s office. Ayanie Mohamed, 20, of Charlestown, Anthony Martinez, 17, and Gale Ashkir, 21, of Roxbury also were arraigned in connection with the sting. They all pleaded not guilty.

All together, the stolen belongings of about 200 people were hocked at MIB, Davis estimated, Police are working with departments in other cities and with MBTA police to find the items’ rightful owners.

Asked whether he had ever worried that perps might figure out what the store’s acronym stood for, Davis said no, noting an eternal rule of law enforcement.

“We don’t catch the smart ones,” he said.

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