Following several Newbury Street store break-ins over the past three weeks, the Boston Police Department is increasing patrols and visibility during the busiest shopping season of the year.
American Apparel, Barbour, Longchamp, Valentino and City Sports have reported an attempted break-in or robbery, according to BPD officials. The shopping district saw several “smash and grab” incidents, mostly occurring between 1:30 and 4:30 a.m., according to BPD spokesperson Elaine Driscoll.
Driscoll added the department is “exercising extreme vigilance” based on these reports by increasing the number of officers patrolling the streets and adding undercover anti-crime units.
While these recent robberies appear to indicate an increase in crime, BPD Captain William Evans said “things have calmed down” over the past few months, adding that the holiday season usually draws more public attention to similar crime levels, according to the transcript of a Nov. 27 press conference.
“Newbury Street we’ve had covered for some time,” he said. “We’ve had officers full time on Newbury. With the holidays, we’ve increased the patrols double, sometimes triple, just because we do that every year.”
Evans added that storeowners are encouraged to keep a closer eye on customers over the next few weeks as stores tend to be more crowded during the busiest shopping time of the year, telling employees not to hesitate to call 911 if they notice any suspicious activity.
While Evans did not provide specific patrol times, he said at least two officers would always be present and that the night patrol recently put in place would be permanent.
“They’re in and out of the stores, they’re visiting the merchants, so, we try to make them as visible as possible,” Evans said. “That being said, you’re not going to see them all the time.”
Newbury Street League spokeswoman Kate Quinn said about six stores had been broken into and merchandise was stolen out of some of the windows.
“We’re telling storeowners to report any suspicious activity and to use their own security systems,” Quinn said. “There seems to be one [break-in attempt] each night, and we’re trying to figure out if it’s just one person or a copycat.”
“We had one of our doors smashed and one of our windows smashed on two separate occasions,” said City Sports manager Brendan, who could not give his last name, because of company policy. “As far as I know, this is the first time something like this has happened at this [store’s] location.”
While Valentino could not be reached for comment, the official Boston Police Department crime news blog posted Nov. 29 said an arrest had been made for the crime. According to the blog, which is updated by BPD media relations officers, the officers responded to a silent alarm around 4:30 a.m. and found a “double paned window on the Berkeley Street side smashed.” It was unclear whether anything was stolen from the clothing store, the report added.
“It is a concern,” said Risa Nishimoto, the manager at Diptyque, a store on Newbury Street. “It’s unnerving, the persistence. We have received emails from the Newbury Street League to remove window display items.”
Mike Lariviere, manager of The Boston Baked Bean — a novelty gift shop on Newbury Street — said that while no break-in or robberies had occurred at his store, he is aware of the crimes.
“The boldness of it surprised me,” said Lariviere. “I think that it’s just Christmas time and people want stuff. I don’t think it’ll keep up because of the increased patrols. I see the police all the time walking up and down the street.”