Carjackers rob cabby on Avon St.
Published on May 23rd, 2001
STONEHAM, MA - Armed men carjacked four cabs in three days, beginning with a Saturday night ambush on Avon Street.
Gunmen robbed drivers in Peabody, Lynnfield and Saugus on Monday night, May 21.
Last month a cabby was carjacked in Wakefield.
In every instance the men hailed cabs in Boston, robbed the drivers after traveling to the suburbs and stole the cabs. All the suspects were armed with handguns and described as twenty-something Hispanic or white males. In Stoneham there were two suspects, in Peabody, Lynnfield, Saugus and Wakefield there were three.
Stoneham Police got a more detailed description of the suspects from the cabby robbed last Saturday on Avon Street. The 26-year-old employee of City Cab of Boston worked with a Stoneham Police composite artist to create sketches of the suspects. He described the carjackers as Hispanic males in their 20s, both around 5’ 9” to 6’, one with a medium build and the other skinny (see sketches on page 2).
According to police, these suspects hailed the City Cab in front of the Wang Center in Boston and told the cabby that they were going to a party in Stoneham. The suspects told the driver to take Route 93 to Route 95 to exit 40. But this is the north end of Main Street Wakefield so the suspects told the driver to get back on 95 and take the Route 28 exit.
Once in Stoneham the suspects asked the driver to take rights and lefts, pretending to look for the house party. Finally the meter read $49, and since the men had originally asked to keep the fare below $50, the driver pulled over right there on Avon Street.
At this point the driver allegedly felt two guns on the back of his head. He was robbed, ordered out of the cab, and then the heavier suspect jumped over the seat, put the car in gear and took off. In the process several cars parked on Avon Street were hit.
The noise of the hit and run sparked the first calls to Stoneham Police. The cabby approached the police as they arrived on the scene. He told police that he had flipped the interior lights on to talk about directions during the ride; he had seen the suspects’ faces.
The carjackers got away with $245 cash, a cellular phone, company checks and the cab driver’s personal checks and credit cards.
Boston Police recovered the cab on Sunday, May 20, on Rutherford Avenue in Charlestown. Stoneham Police are working together with other communities used as ambush sites.
Arrests made
Malden Police arrested three men on Tuesday suspected of robbing cabs in Peabody and Lynnfield on Monday night.
The men — Rudolpho Hermanson, 18, of Somerville, Jonathan Leite, 17 of Revere and Anderson DeSouza, 24, of Malden — were charged with armed robbery and carjacking.
The men hailed a cab in Brookline, robbed the cabby in Peabody, ditched the cab in Woburn, called another cab, robbed that cab driver in Lynnfield, and ditched the cab in Malden.
A security guard in Malden tipped off police to suspicious activity leading to the arrests. These may be the same men who ambushed the City Cab driver on Avon Street in Stoneham, but police are still investigating.
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