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Man sought for acting suspiciously while buying propane canisters
By adamg on Fri, 07/08/2016 - 9:56am
Cambridge Police report:
As part of an ongoing investigation, the Cambridge Police Department is seeking the public’s assistance in identifying an individual who reportedly acted suspicious while purchasing four small propane canisters at a local business on Wednesday, June 29 at approximately 8:30 a.m. Anyone with any information is encouraged to contact 617-349-3364.
This individual is not wanted at this time and the information is being provided for identification purposes only.
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Comments
This is stupid
This is stupid
Does this site have any sort of threshold
for the items that it posts? If so, it must be incredibly low.
Adam does a great job
He post stories about history, gossip, news, food, nightlife...and he is welcome to post whichever stories he sees fit. if you don't like the content then don't come by. UHub is the best site for information on daily life in Boston and people seem to really want to imply some sort of inherent bias to Adam's journalism. Fact is he does a ton of work to maintain and update his website and I am really truly thankful for the service he provides to thousands of readers.
Hear, hear!
I share your gratitude to Adam for his work at providing local news that isn't covered by other "local" media outlets.
Also, I'd like to remind everyone that you can express your gratitude by clicking on that "Support now" button on the right and throwing a little cash his way.
I agree that UHUB is the best
I agree that UHUB is the best local source for news for online readers.
Ever since The Boston Globe were bought by greedy Red Sox owners , I've been a dedicated fan of UHUB, The Globe had online readers for the longest time read articles for free, up until greedy Red Sox owners started to charge people a fee.
It is fairly typical for news
It is fairly typical for news sites to publish requests by the police for the public's assistance finding someone. That is hardly a low threshold. You can wonder if the Cambridge Police have a low threshold for asking for the public's help, but I would expect most news sites to publish something when the police ask.
I hope the police have a really good reason
and this was not some summer intern who accidentally pushed the wrong email button.
I don't know why they mentioned propane canisters. Would it be better for them to say they'd like to speak with him, or need his assistance, without mentioning something that makes everyone think he's being investigated as a possible terrorist?
A lot of people would get fired from their jobs just for having their photo in a post like this.
So within an hour, we have idiots implying that the
guy is "not pretty" and/or "homeless," albeit by phrasing their comments in a sympathetic or ironical way.
Way to go, Universal Hub - real service to the community. I'm sure you'd be quite happy if your own family members were subjected to this level of nonsense for absolutely no reason.
Feel free to leave any time..
Feel free to leave any time...
bye
With your ad hominems you've clearly shown you have nothing to add. You'll certainly be missed.
Youre delusional
I was 100% straight forward with what I said about him not being pretty. What layer of irony are you looking for here. My comments can be taken at face value.
"Idiots implying"
Yup. That's how internet comments work. It is tiresome sometimes, but Uhub provides a lot of coverage and information that I don't find elsewhere, or don't find as quickly elsewhere. I think Uhub on balance is better with comments than without comments.
And furthermore, I am someone who sometimes posted as anon. As a matter of fact, Adam has refused to post some of my comments for whatever reason, but that is his decision. It's his website.
You have family members?
CHECK YOUR PRIVILEGE, dude!
If this man had family members, they could nonsuspiciously purchase these things for him at Costco or OS Job Lot!
Adam deserves gratitude, not attitude.
This is my first stop every morning for local developments.
How does one act suspicious
How does one act suspicious while buying camping / grilling supplies?
He doesnt look
Pretty, so, obviously he is weird and has an agenda.
Obviously he acted normal enough that the store sold the propane. Man, we live in a fear driven world.
Mark Ruffalo
Mark Ruffalo is going camping.
homeless
Odds are he's homeless and was buying small propane tanks to do things that people without a house can't do with ease: cook things over a flame. There are attachments that turn those into a miniature stove top with ease. What do you do when you run out? You buy new ones.
Assuming this is the case, It's got to be even more dehumanizing to not even be able to basic things like provide for oneself without having an APB issued for your "odd behavior".
Or...
he's just buying fuel for a potato cannon.
">http://www.quoteslike.com
Strickland Propane is coming to Boston
He's just Bill Dauterive doing a secret propane run for Hank Hill
I tell ya h'wut
That boy ain't right
If the store thought the purchase was suspicious...
why did they sell to him?
can they refuse?
If I run a store and someone wants to buy something that's not restricted (i.e. not ATF stuff) I'm selling for valid payment, can I legally say no?
You can refuse service for any reason
As long as it doesn't violate a protected class like race, color , etc.
Fear of lawsuit if they didn
Fear of lawsuit if they didn't? They could get taken to the cleaners.
No they couldn't
There's no law protecting your right to buy propane.
Most stores (and businesses)
Most stores (and businesses) don't operate on the assumption that they might get sued for something like this. Slip & fall? Sure. But we can't constantly be concerned we are getting sued out of business, especially when we have an inkling of what we are doing.
cambridge cannister guy
definitely looks like a cyclist.
Oh, come on
He doesn't look that Muslim, you pussies.
Looks like a normal man in T-shirt and backpack
And in decent shape. I would guess, from the photos and the purchasing of small propane cylinders, that he was likely an outdoors type, and going camping this weekend.
If he seemed irate, that might just mean he works at Microsoft, or is a grad student, and decided he needs to get away from the Cambridge BS for a relaxing weekend camping.
What was not reported that seemed suspicious?
"Acting Suspicious..."
...is suspiciously vague.
Was he trying to hide one or more of the cannisters in his backpack?
Is buying four at a time a significantly large amount?? (I wouldn't know, I don't own a gas grill...)
Was he peeling open or trying to peel open packages of other items?
Was he constantly looking around to see if he was being watched??
Was he picking up an item and quickly dropping it if someone came around the corner and saw him holding said item (like a 13 year old who's been dared by peers to buy condoms..)?
And while every store has the legal right to refuse to sell an otherwise legal item to any individual for any reason, most stores don't exercise that right out of fear of the public relations nightmare of a lawsuit: ex: "they refused to sell it to me only because I am (black, Muslim, female, disabled etc. etc. etc.)" A judge may well uphold the business owner's right to refuse the individual sale, but overall sales will drop because easily offended people will get offended on behalf of the person who was refused that initial sale...no matter how "right" the store was in the first place.
Wednesday June 29th? He would
Wednesday June 29th? He would have used them for something nefarious by now. Target sells them and you can use any bathroom and not be marked suspicious.