[Summit] Suspicious character or (understandably) suspicious residents?

[Emlyn Addison]

My only question would be: If he wasn't obviously turning his head to scope
out the houses, was he actively describing the contents of what he was
seeing while walking? Or was this all he said that was heard?

If not, then just mentioning the number of a house as he walks by does seem
a bit odd, but not unduly suspicious. There could be a number of perfectly
innocent reasons.

Another oddity, and maybe someone knows more about this than I do:

I was driving to pick up my girl last week (Wednesday or Thursday afternoon,
I think) and at the intersection of Brewster and Summit Ave I saw a man--who
looked like he worked for one of those lawn-cutting outfits--furiously (and
not all that effectively) swiping away with a trimmer at some hedges beside
the road on Brewster.

I thought it was a little bizarre since I looked around and saw no truck, no
other tools and no other gardeners (they often work in twos, I've noticed).

Driving back just 15 minutes later, there were two cop cars, one on Brewster
and one on Summit right where he was "working", both empty and no sign of
the man (for all I know he lives in the house there, so correct me if I'm
wrong). I also happened to notice that the hedges he was cutting looked, um,
completely unfinished and unprofessional. And now five days later they're
still unfinished.

Was this a botched burglary? Police actually responded?

Anyway, it's difficult not to be suspicious of everything...and trying NOT
to be suspicious of everything is rather like trying to bottle fire.

Emlyn



Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2011 08:53:27 -0400
> From: Theresa Mathiesen <elvamath at gmail.com>
> To: Neighborhood Association <Summit at sna.providence.ri.us>
> Cc: Monica Anderson <majaprov at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [Summit] Suspicious character?
> Message-ID:
>        <CAAX+33S4XCDx7hhx=sOvgEuA_Psnoz_QYo5AQrbDaVyLUrsb3w at mail.gmail.com
> >
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Hi, neighbors,
>
> I get up early, even on Saturdays, and early Saturday morning is when
> I tend to see strange behavior.  My husband, who got up 3 hours later
> today, says I should have called the police about what I saw this
> morning.  It's too late for that now, but I thought I'd tell you what
> I saw so you can keep an eye out.
>
> This morning at about 6:05 a.m.:  a middle aged, white male, in dark
> blue (?) Bermuda shorts, a short-sleeved shirt, and a cloth
> short-brimmed hat, was walking down Lauriston St. from West to East,
> carrying a black cell phone in his hand.  He was on the north side of
> the street, opposite my side.  I was on my front porch.  The man
> turned left (north) on Hope Street.  I figured he was going to Seven
> Stars.
>
> Five or ten minutes later (at 6:18 a.m.) here he came again, this time
> on my side of the street, heading in the opposite direction, that is,
> away from Hope Street and west toward Brewster.  As he was passing my
> house, I heard him say into his cell phone:
>
> "I'm on Lauriston Street now, just passing by number 45."  That's all
> he said, and the only time I saw or heard him talk into the phone.
>
> After he passed my house, I went down to the sidewalk and watched
> where he went.  He turned left (south) onto Brewster.
>
> This man had smooth, pale skin.  His age could have been 35 to 55 but
> I'm guessing closer to 35.  He was shorter than 6'.  He was keeping a
> steady, normal pace and wasn't obviously turning his head to scope out
> the houses.
>
> My husband and I, newly minted Block Captains, are puzzled as to what
> this was about.  Bob says he would have called the police about this
> -- but he was asleep and I couldn't consult him.  In the future he's
> going to get up early on Saturdays, he says.
>
> Anyway, you might want to keep an eye out for this guy.
>
> Elva Mathiesen
>
>
>
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