Boston Herald March 17,2009 by Laura Crimaldi
Two teenage St. Patrick’s Day revelers who were outside the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum the night of the 1990 art heist approached police about what they witnessed on Palace Road, but say they felt rebuffed by law enforcement, the Herald has learned.
The eyewitnesses, whose identities are being withheld by the Herald, said that on the night of the robbery they were high school students out partying on Palace Road, near the side entry to the museum, with a group of friends.
They were interviewed separately by the Herald in recent days in the presence of museum Director of Security Anthony M. Amore.
The man, who was a 17-year-old high school senior, said he was giving a female friend a piggyback ride when the girl noticed that there were what looked to be police officers sitting in a car parked on the museum side of the road.
The man said he approached the vehicle to get a better look through the driver’s side window. The man said he could see a keystone-shaped patch on the driver’s left arm. He remembered looking at the officer for several seconds.
The uniformed officer was seated in a blue-gray Dodge Daytona two-door hatchback, according to an account the male witness gave to law enforcement two days after the March 18, 1990, robbery.
The male witness described the officer as “wearing a dark navy blue coat with a patch on the left shoulder, which read BOSTON in gold embroidery,” the police report says. The patch was outlined in gold piping and had a curved top, the report said.
That 1990 report states the male witness also saw a “silhouette” of a man in the passenger seat.
The witness told police he stared into the hatchback for 30 seconds and “got an extremely good look at the individual and his clothing.” He described the driver as a clean-shaven white male with “Asian” eyes, dark brown hair, and a large build.
The girl receiving the piggyback told the Herald – and police at the time – that she saw two officers in the car. The teens were spooked by the apparent law enforcement presence, they said, because they were underage and had been drinking at a party nearby.
“I turned very quickly, feeling like I was the one who was compromised,” the male witness said.
Both witnesses told the Herald the vehicle was parked on Palace Road for 10 to 15 minutes. The witnesses and their friends were lingering on Palace Road discussing where to go next. Both witnesses said there was no movement involving the car during that period.
Their accounts are somewhat at odds with statements from the museum guard who buzzed the two thieves into the compound. That guard said he saw vehicle headlights approach the museum and two men exit a car within seconds. The guard said he was watching from a museum security monitor.
After reading about the robbery in the newspaper, the male witness discussed what he saw on Palace Road with his parents. He said he liked the museum and had even written a paper about Rembrandt’s “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee,” which was stolen from the Dutch Room. He went to police.
Both witnesses said police were dismissive of their accounts once they learned the teens had been drinking. Neither witness was shown a photo array. The police did not ask for their input for composite sketches of the suspects.
The FBI conducted a three-minute interview with the male witness years later, he said. The woman said she left her phone number and address with police, but was never contacted by anyone.
Amore contacted the male witness in 2007. He interviewed the female witness last week.
The male witness has looked at pictures of possible suspects provided to him by Amore, but said he never positively identified anyone.
The female witness reviewed the Herald’s updated sketches prior to their publication on Sunday. She said the new sketches do not resemble the man she saw in the car nearly 19 years ago.
Copyright Boston Herald
