11/12/08 Something more than coffee brews at Cafe 1923

By Charles Sercombe

Maybe it’s a sign of how tough the economy is.

Normally, Café 1923 on Holbrook is a pretty laid back place that encourages customers to sit back, curl up with a book or plug into their Internet service for free and enjoy a good cup of coffee or tea.

Crime is not the usual topic of discussion here.

That changed on Saturday afternoon when two teenager boys thought they could pull a fast one on the counter clerk.

While one asked about this and that at one end of the counter, the other boy, thought to be around 18 years old, hung suspiciously around the other end of the counter where the cash register is located.

The 16-year-old boy pulling off the apparent distraction then asked for a smoothie, which required the counter clerk, Megan Buckley to turn her back to prepare.

But something all of a sudden clicked inside Buckley’s head and she turned around quick to discover the 18-year-old opening the cash register and removing money.

“That’s when I got loud real quick,” Buckley said, and her yelling out got the attention of a customer, Mike Grijak, and one of the owners who rushed up to the boys as they attempted to leave.

The boys were surrounded and the 18-year-old gave back the $80 he had grabbed and then denied the whole thing.

The boys were told to empty their pockets and a knife was produced. They were handed over to police officers who arrived moments later.

Buckley said maybe it wasn’t the smartest thing to do in confronting the teens considering they could have had a gun.

“It was an adrenaline kick though,” she said.

At the time The Citizen went to print it was not known if the teens had been charged.