At about 1:15pm, on Monday, October 11, 2010, officers from Area D-4 (South End) were on patrol in the area of the Back Bay when they observed an individual carrying a handful of clothes while walking in a hurried fashion. Officers further noted that the clothing items were not in a bag and still had price tags attached to them. Officers observed the suspect walk up to a trash can, reach in and pull out what looked to be a shopping bag. Officers then observed the individual place the clothes he had been carrying into the bag. Seeing this, officers approached the suspect and asked him to produce a receipt for the clothing in his bag. When asked to produce a receipt, the suspect stated that he couldn’t. Officers noticed that the items in question had ‘Patagonia’ tags affixed to them. Knowing that the Patagonia store was in the immediate area, officers accompanied the suspect back to the store for further questioning. Once inside the store, officers spoke to a sales associate who stated that she observed the suspect in the store earlier, but he did not purchase any items. When officers confronted the suspect with the sales associate’s remarks, the suspect stated, “Yeah. I took them (the clothing) and I didn’t pay for them.”
Officers arrested Shawn Murphy, 29, of Revere and charged him with Larceny (Over $250.00).
The stolen items were returned to the staff at Patagonia.