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A YOUNG NEWBRIDGE man found himself in trouble with the police during a holiday to Boston – and all over a cannoli.
The Sicilian pastry dessert was at the centre of a case that saw Robert McTernan (25), of Newbridge, Co Kildare, arraigned in Boston Municipal Court on a charge of armed robbery.
The charge stemmed from an early-morning trip McTernan took to a Boston bakery just a few hours after he arrived in the city.
The case was so unusual that it was picked up by CBS news and a number of different news outlets around the world.
According to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office in Massachusetts, Boston police responded to a call at 3.38AM on 13 September for a person with a knife at Salem Street.
They found McTernan, who had flown into Boston just hours previously for a two-week holiday, inside the kitchen of Bova’s bakery.
McTernan had allegedly entered the kitchen and picked up a blue-handled kitchen knife, concealing it by placing it against his forearm.
Prosecutors say he then demanded a cannoli, which an employee handed to him before backing behind a counter.
McTernan allegedly told the victim to “shush” and placed his finger to his lips.
A cannoli (Pic: Seth Wenig/AP/Press Association Images)
Arrest
Police arrested McTernan but were not able to locate the knife during a search of the area. He was brought to court, where Judge Mark Hart Summerville set bail at $2,000 and ordered McTernan to surrender his passport and stay away from Bova’s Bakery, where the incident occurred.
McTernan was back in court yesterday. Suffolk County District Attorney’s press ssecretary Jake Wark said that McTernan’s charge initially was armed robbery but he admitted to “facts sufficient for a finding of guilty on the lesser charge of larceny”.
The decision that we made was that it was better to resolve [the case] when in the country than continue it for several months after he left.
Community service
The Newbridge native agreed to perform 50 hours of community service and undergo substance abuse evaluation and treatment – and stay away from the bakery where the incident occured.
He can undergo evaluation treatment in Ireland. If he abides by all those condition and doesn’t reoffend, the case will be dismissed after nine months.
Wark said that the case was resolved after consultation with the victim, as well as after getting the Garda Siochána’s assurance that McTernan has no prior record in Ireland.
He added that the attorney’s office “felt it was an appropriate disposition, given that nobody was hurt” in the cannoli incident.
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Things cannoli get better for him.
Genius
Brilliant
Ah James!!! Comment of the week!! BRILLIANT! Ha!Ha!
Muppet he could at least have gone for a chocolate eclair
I do like a coffee slice
What a plonker!
I hope he gets his just deserts
He could count himself lucky in a country that has locked up people for not returning library books on time.
He didn’t exactly appear in court over a pastry though did he. It was the fact that he picked up a knife.
Come on folks wake up! Clearly there is a serious drinking\drug issue here in Ireland and our young people aren’t being apprised of the world and consequences. How many times have we here of our young lads who drown during a night out, or our girls of teenage years while out at concerts go missing for days on end? The lad in this article should consider himself lucky. In America, he could found himself in the American prison system or dead. Many American shop owners keep guns handy for protection. The craic could of ended sadly.
Marlon, I dont think Idiocy Syndrome is confined to Ireland only, it’s common the world over! I myself was quite fond of the drink and a ‘craic’ when I was younger but never tried to hold up a bakery with a knife! Please don’t tar all young Irish people based upon the actions of one Idiot!
That’s what I thought too. That sort carry on an he would have got away with it here. He’d have thought it a good laugh the next day. Message to people emigrating/ going abroad is follow the law. Not everywhere is as lawless as here. They have room in their jails to deal with people.
he’s 25, not 12! why is alcohol always blamed? every scanger who goes to court blames drink, drugs, their childhood, everyone and everything except themselves.
There are jackasses all over the world and unless they start giving some kind of “are you a moron test” we will continue to see these stories from all over the world.
Bet he feels a right donut now
The cops tried to beat a confection out of him but he wouldn’t tell them where he hid the dough.
I agree he could have got toasted..
…or the crepe beaten out of him..
Bloody hell…I lived in Boston for 8 years and while I agree that the pastry is top rate it does not justify such behaviour
What a muppet
This really takes the biscuit
I blame The Sopranos for this
Ran out of money already and needed ( kneaded ?) dough……..
Piece of cake
He’d heard of the Boston tea party and wanted to bring a cake.
Only in America! While I agree he should not haven taken a cake the cost of the police time and court case must surely outweighed the cost of the cake. Couldn’t they have left him off with a warning? As for the knife the police did not find a at the scene. Get real!!!is crime rate that low in America that they have to prosecute cases like this ?
See, Ireland is so easy to forgive lawlessness. “Era Jonny didn’t mean any harm” arresting him will send message that this is not accepted! Bet he won’t be trying that again, well not till he arrives back home to the local chipper in Kildare After another night of pints!
Hilarious, robbery at knife point eh? Jeesuz wept ………….
Holy Cannoli!
He seems to have gotten himself into a right jam.
Your life or your lupins, m’lord.
some people just want to have there cake and eat it
Penal servitude is the answer for crepes like this, send him home via tea time express.
Another irish tool abroad making a show of us. Take his passport and lock him up. The dope.
He got Bosted
It was so sad even the cake was in tears
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