News

Police nab unpopular ATM thief after receiving flood of tips

November 11, 2003

BOSTON - Police had surprisingly little trouble tracking down a Somerville, Mass., man arrested on Nov. 11 for stalking and sticking up five ATM customers in Cambridge.

According to a report in the Boston Herald, more than 100 people called police in one night to rat him out.

"He wasn't popular,' Cambridge police spokesman Frank Pasquarello said of Richard McCabe, 38, who'll be arraigned on five counts of armed robbery.

McCabe, a sometimes laborer, was pinched at 2:10 p.m. at an East Cambridge apartment after friends, enemies and co-workers flooded police with tips following Nov. 10 television broadcasts that included his photograph and details of his alleged crime spree.

"Many of the calls that we received, people knew him personally from dealing with him in the past,' said Cambridge police Sgt. Detective Pauline Carter-Wells. "They were actually quite eager to come forward and tell us who he was. Ninety percent of the calls identified Richard McCabe as the man in the picture.'

Carter-Wells said investigators have bank-security photos of McCabe from four of his five alleged holdups. She declined to say how much money McCabe is alleged to have stolen and whether the cash has been recovered.

Investigators released few details about McCabe or the robberies, which he's alleged to have committed at knifepoint in East Cambridge and Kendall Square between the hours of 7 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. between Oct. 29 and Nov. 10, according to the Herald report.

"People were in fear of going into the ATMs,' Pasquarello said. "We had detectives setting up surveillances day and night at different locations throughout the city. We're just happy we were able to make an arrest.'

McCabe allegedly robbed customers of cash -- but not their ATM cards -- at two Citizens Bank branches. He's also charged with hitting a Fleet Bank ATM three different times.

None of his alleged victims were harmed.