Police probing three bold smash & grabs in three Boston-area communities

BOSTON — Police in three communities are investigating three bold smash and grabs that unfolded in Boston, Somerville, and Cambridge in the time span of just over an hour.

It started in the overnight hours Tuesday at 2:25 a.m. at City Smoke Shop in the North End.

Surveillance video shows three masked and hooded suspects casing Salem Street before they hurled a cinderblock through the front glass door.

Footage captures them frantically looking for the safe before dashing out and leaving a mess behind over the course of a minute.

“I’m pretty heartbroken about this situation. It sucks to come into work and find out that not only have you been robbed, but the store is thrashed,” said Waldy Nova with City Smoke shop.

Three suspects matching a similar description made a crashing entrance through the front glass window of D & K Smoke Shop in Somerville 38 minutes later.

The trio crawled in, threw the register, and ransacked the business in less than a minute.

“Once we see the video from the other stores, it’s probably the same guys,” said Kumraz Gurung with D & K Smoke Shop.

Three similar suspects were at it again 20 minutes later at Cambridge Smoke Shop about a mile away.

They burst through the glass door and knocked over the glass case as they frantically thrashed around.

The suspects were also in and out in the time span of a minute in that third incident.

“I’m very pissed off. I have to suffer from it,” said Hitesh Prajapati with Cambridge Smoke Shop. “This is like the third time it happened to me.”

Three business owners who woke up to hundreds in stolen cash and products and cleanup costs in the thousands are hopeful investigators will catch the fast-moving thieves before they strike again.

Police in Boston, Somerville, and Cambridge are still looking into whether these three break-ins in a four-mile radius are definitively connected.

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