Posted on 09/17/2012 7:48:00 AM PDT by raccoonradio
A tourist from Ireland apparently couldn’t wait to get his hands on an Italian pastry in Boston.
Prosecutors say just hours after 25-year-old Robert McTernan landed in Boston for a two-week vacation, he entered a bakery in the North End, a largely Italian neighborhood. They say he grabbed a knife and demanded a cannoli from an employee.
The worker at Bova’s Bakery handed McTernan the pastry made from creamy ricotta cheese wrapped in a crunchy shell, then called police at about 3:30 a.m. Thursday.
Officers found the Newbridge, Ireland, resident in the kitchen and arrested him on an armed robbery charge. Police could not find the knife.
McTernan pleaded not guilty at his arraignment. He was granted $2,000 bail and ordered to surrender his passport.
Hey, no problem, me too, but I don't know if I'd call it "cognitive dissonance". More like plain confusion.
It might be that the workers show up really early to start making a fresh batch for the morning rush. Regardless, given the hour and national origin of the perp, I got a feeling that alcohol was involved. Given that it was the (did I mention Italian?) North End, the guy's lucky he got out alive. If one nephew or cousin of one of the workers had happened by, that guy would have gotten a canoli up the colonoscopy. If he was lucky.
Bova’s is 24/7. Love that place.
Thanks for the 411. Still think alcohol was involved, and the guy is really lucky the server’s boyfriend did drop in at that hour.
Clemenze had it right - take the cannolis...
this particular bakery is open 24/7
Aha! That makes sense, thanks. I imagine lots of “proper Bostonians” get the “early morning munchies.”
Now the bakery can say people will come all the way from Ireland and go to jail just to have their pastry. Such a deal!
The “North End” is always crawling with people, before/after hockey/basketball games, there are street festivals, farmer’s markets, it’s quite the place to be. Some of the best Italian food is there. Some of Boston’s news anchors live in the North End and those people are up all hours of the day and nite so it’s nice to have a place to grab something to eat on the way to work or on the way home at whatever ungodly hour!
“Hand over the cannoli or I’ll introduce you to Mr. Shillelagh!”
I don’t think it’s there anymore but I used to go to the European.
The Anguilo HQ were on Prince St (got wiretapped)
Wiki.:”Angiulo later headed up Boston’s underworld from the 1960s to the 1980s. He and his brothers ran the criminal organization out of Francesco’s Restaurant at 98 Prince Street in the North End, the neighborhood in which he grew up.”
From Howie’s 8/31/09 column, as repro-ed here on FR
>>Who says the Boston FBI office is worthless? At least they recorded all these “Doghouse Tapes” of Boston Mafia underboss Gennaro Angiulo. For three months in early 1981, the G-men were taping everything that was being discussed in Angiulo’s North End headquarters at 98 Prince St.
Let’s go right to the transcribed adventures of the late Gennaro Angiulo as he muses on Mafia matters great and small, but almost always profane.
Upon hearing of the passing of one of his loanshark victims: “He can’t be dead. He owes me $13,000!”
On bringing in outside help: “I am sending for Vinnie and his partner, Fat Vinnie.”
The European has been closed since at least 1998 or earlier! They had damn good pizza, we would go there all the time when we were in Boston, that was THE place to go.
“chrissy moltisanti?”
Or as his girlfriend called him...”criss-ta-fuh”
Yes...one time I was in Boston with a friend and it was either St Patrick’s Day or the Sunday nearest to it. Wanted to go to the Black Rose for brunch but a sign said “no Sunday brunch today” they had music instead. So we wound up celebrating the holiday at...the European! Italian, Irish, whatever...
Update on Leave the knife take the cannolis
Cannoli thief avoids getting creamed by justice system
By Laurel J. Sweet | Wednesday, September 19, 2012 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
A pastry plunderer’s just desserts won’t be too hard to swallow, thanks to a North End bakery’s owners, who decided against exacting sweet revenge.
Irish tourist Robert McTernan, 25, admitted Monday in Boston Municipal Court there were sufficient facts for a jury to find him guilty of larceny under $250 for robbing Bova’s Bakery on Salem Street at 3 a.m. Thursday of two ricotta-cheese cannolis valued at approximately $5 while allegedly flashing what terrified employees described as a large knife.
The blade was never recovered. Prosecutors agreed to reduce a charge of armed robbery to larceny and offered nine month’s probation in exchange for his admitting to the cannoli caper.
Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, said Judge Thomas Horgan banned McTernan from returning to the bakery and ordered him to return to Ireland in the custody of his parents, who flew to Boston to collect him. In addition, McTernan, who Wark said has no criminal history in his native country, must perform 50 hours of community service in Ireland and undergo treatment for substance abuse.
“If he abides by those conditions and does not reoffend for nine months, we will dismiss the charge,” Wark said.
Had a jury convicted McTernan of larceny, he could have faced up to one year in jail.
Ralph Bova, whose family has owned the sweet shop for 85 years, said: “I’m just glad no one got hurt. That was my main concern. You don’t know who you’re dealing with at that hour of the morning.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1061161395
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