Digging himself out of a hole at cemetery
Every day, police officers respond to reports of all sorts of events and nonevents, most of which never make the news. Here is a sampling of lesserknown — but no less noteworthy — incidents from police log books (a.k.a. blotters) in our communities.
NOT A GRAVE SITUATION
There’s a lot of history at the Old Burying Ground on Springs Road in Bedford. The cemetery, which dates back to 1729, is the final resting place of “Minutemen and Militiamen who fought at Concord and along Battle Road on April 19, 1775, and Black Revolutionary soldiers,” according to the town’s website. You can imagine the concern if someone saw a person digging in that sacred spot. That’s exactly what happened Aug. 2, when police received a call from someone alerting them to a digger at the cemetery. An officer was dispatched but soon found the person digging had a good reason for being there: doing work for the town’s Department of Public Works.
EXAGGERATE MUCH?
At approximately 3:15 p.m. Aug. 1, police responded to a report of a dispute unfolding in the parking lot of a business on Eastern Avenue in Essex. Police were told the road rage incident had occurred 40 minutes earlier, and that one of the people involved had made threats and shown a firearm before driving away. Officers searched the area for the suspect and broadcasted a description of the suspect’s vehicle to other agencies. Essex officers tracked down the owner of the vehicle and as they gathered more information from people who were directly involved in the dispute and witnesses, they found out what really happened. It wasn’t nearly as serious as what they were initially told, and there was no gun. In fact, no weapons of any kind were involved. On Aug. 4, police released a statement saying the dispute appeared to be an isolated incident, no one was armed, there was no danger to the general public, and “no charges have been filed at this time.”
RUNAWAY TRUCK
July 24 was a rough day for a landscaping company based out of Hull. According to police, an employee apparently forgot to secure and check the tires of one of the company’s vehicles when it was parked at a job site in Cohasset. The landscaping truck, which had a box trailer in tow, rolled away with no one in it. The unoccupied truck traveled southbound on Forest Avenue and eventually crossed over into the northbound lanes before going off the road and hitting a telephone pole. A portion of Forest Avenue was closed to traffic for about an hour as police dealt with the situation and the truck was towed. Luckily, there were no injuries, but the truck and trailer were totaled. Police said the worker who allegedly failed to secure the truck was issued a civil citation. The owner of the company, who was not at the scene, was issued separate citations for motor vehicle offenses.
(ANOTHER?) SNAKE ON THE LOOSE
You may have heard the (false) rumor about a boa constrictor that was on the loose in Lexington in late July. Thankfully, it turned out to be a misunderstanding: Police determined the snake was actually someone’s pet and the owner had taken it outside, put it on the ground, and let people take pictures of it. Someone who saw the photos mistakenly believed the large snake was slithering free, which turned out not to be the case. But sometimes snakes do get away from (or are left behind by?) their owners. Case in point: a domestic boa constrictor was recently found outside of the Extended Stay America hotel off Roue 495 in Tewksbury, and it really was alone. Local animal control officials shared the news of the lost boa on Facebook on Aug. 6, and asked anyone who might be missing a snake to call 978-2159639.