I’ve been out of town or I would have posted about this sooner. Last Wednesday (10/14/09) around 8:45am, I was standing in front of 100 Paul Gore (where I live) waiting for a ride. I noticed a guy walking from the direction of Centre St. toward Beecher, occasionally talking to himself in Spanish. When he reached my neighbors driveway, right next to where I was standing, he looked at me, said hi, and walked down the driveway toward the backyard. I knew he didn’t live there, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen him around and I was trying to remember if I’d seen him talking to my neighbors before—he may actually know them. He popped his head into the backyard, then came down the driveway and walked around to the other side of the house, then left and continued walking toward Chestnut.

The whole thing was pretty quick and since I couldn’t remember for sure if I’d seen the guy talking with my neighbors, I called 911 and told them it was a non-emergency call. I described what I saw and the conversation went roughly like this:

Operator: What do you want us to do about it?
Me: Well, given the amount of activity in the neighborhood recently, I thought this was worth reporting.
Operator: But he’s gone now, right?
Me: Yeah.
Operator: Then there’s nothing we can do. You should have called earlier.
Me: You don’t even want a description?
Operator: There’s nothing we can do. You should have called while he was there and we could have apprehended him.

I get that calling while he was there would have been more helpful, but it happened pretty quickly and there was the possibility that he knew someone there. However, to get serious attitude and be put on the defensive right off the bat from the 911 operator doesn’t help anyone. I’m under the impression that reporting these things is important. Plus, the guy was on foot and still in the neighborhood.

In any event, a description of the man: thin, Latino male, about 6’1”, in his late 40s-early 50s, wearing gray sweatpants, a dark blue jacket with Addidas and logo printed across the back, and a Red Sox hat.

I haven’t had a chance yet to check with my neighbors to see if they know the guy. I'll update the post when I do.