Street life comes to Watertown - the Waltham connections

H2Otown has a post about the problems plaguing a certain neighborhood in Watertown, not too far from the Belmont and Waltham borders. The problems allegedly include drug dealing, and a recent drive-byish shooting.

There are two Waltham connections with this story. The alleged perps were caught by Waltham police after a Waltham officer heard the APB go out over Watertown police radio, and pulled over the vehicle in Waltham.

The other Waltham connection is one of the perps is a Waltham resident by the name of Herbert Bonds of 1000 Lexington St. in Waltham. Bonds has at least one other arrest, judging by this January 25 report from the Boston Police blog:

At 2:52am this morning officers from District 1 responded to Warrenton Place for a person hit by car. The victim, a 48-year-old male working as a parking lot attendant, told the officers that he was attempting to break up a fight when a white Cadillac SUV struck him. The suspect vehicle fled the scene and was stopped on Kneeland Street by a Detail Officer. The driver, 34-year-old Herbert Bonds of Waltham, and passenger, 28-year-old Alexis Martinez of Lowell, were arrested for Leaving the Scene of a Personal Injury Accident and Reckless Operation. The Cadillac SUV was seized as evidence and towed. Arraignment is today in Boston Municipal Court.

On a completely unrelated note to Mr. Bonds, H2Otown, in the course of talking about bad tenants contributing to crime in Watertown, also trashes a great Michael Keaton movie called Pacific Heights.

Pacific Heights is about the special terrors of being a landlord. It features a tenant who rips off every piece of molding and sells it, starts fires, deliberately releases cockroaches, and violently intimidates the landlord, all in a bid to drive them out of the house and get it cheap. Every time I've signed a lease, I've had a brief flash, a moment of wishing that I were on the other side of the lease again, a tenant whose housing mistakes are easily reversible by logging on to Craigslist and finding some new digs. As a landlord I've been exceptionally lucky, but like all landlords, I have that moment of doubt when a stranger becomes a tenant.

Pacific Heights is a bad movie; and it's as believable as any featuring Michael Keaton, Melanie Griffith, and power tools is likely to be. But there isn't a landlord on the planet who can watch it without getting the chills.

What do you mean, "bad movie"? Borderline loved the cockroach scene!