A 28-year-old Brockton man is facing felony charges after police say he stole a tip jar from a South End bakery, then injured two Boston police officers while resisting arrest hours later near the edge of the neighborhood. Kobe Nevels was taken into custody Sunday evening after a search that stretched from Harrison Avenue across Interstate 93.
Bakery Theft Triggers Hours-Long Search
Police officers responded to a larceny in progress at 345 Harrison Avenue at approximately 5:06 p.m. Sunday, according to Newport Dispatch. Staff at the address, identified as Tatte Bakery & Cafe, told officers a man had walked in, grabbed the counter tip jar and fled, according to Boston 25 News. Officers were unable to locate the suspect during their initial search of the area, so police broadcast a description throughout the district, per the same account.
Boston 25 News reported that the suspect briefly doubled back to a nearby CVS. Universal Hub described him sauntering around the area before he was spotted on the other side of the expressway. Roughly two and a half hours after the initial call, officers spotted an individual matching the description near West Fourth Street and Frontage Road at approximately 7:30 p.m., per Newport Dispatch — a stretch of road across the expressway from the South End commercial corridor where the theft began.
Struggle Leaves Two Officers Hospitalized
As officers approached, the suspect tried to flee on foot and then resisted by flailing his arms, Newport Dispatch reports. Police gave multiple verbal commands to stop resisting before placing him in handcuffs, the outlet notes. Two officers sustained non-life-threatening injuries during the struggle and were taken to local hospitals for treatment, according to the same report.
Nevels is expected to face charges of larceny from a building, assault and battery on a police officer, and resisting arrest, per Newport Dispatch. At his arraignment in Boston Municipal Court, Judge Paul Treseler ordered Nevels held at the Suffolk County Jail in lieu of $250 bail and barred him from returning to Tatte Bakery if he is released, according to Universal Hub.
Why a Tip Jar Theft Becomes a Felony
Under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 266, Section 20, stealing property inside a building is a felony regardless of the dollar amount involved, carrying penalties of up to five years in state prison or up to two years in a house of correction, according to the Boston Criminal Defense Lawyers. That statute explains why the tip jar theft itself carries far steeper exposure than ordinary shoplifting.
The assault and battery charge carries its own mandatory consequences. Under Chapter 265, Section 13D, assault and battery on a police officer carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 90 days in jail and fines up to $5,000, with maximum penalties reaching 2.5 years in a house of correction, per Urbelis Law. The resisting arrest charge, by contrast, is a misdemeanor under Chapter 268, Section 32B, punishable by up to 2.5 years in a house of correction, a fine of up to $500, or both, according to the same firm's analysis.
Second Officer-Injury Incident in the South End This Week
Sunday's arrest marks the second time in less than a week that District D-4 officers were hospitalized while making an arrest in the South End. Six days earlier, on October 12, two Boston police officers were hospitalized while arresting an assault suspect at Blackstone Square on Washington Street, WCVB reported in earlier Hoodline coverage. District D-4 covers public safety across the South End, Back Bay, Fenway and Lower Roxbury, according to the Boston Police Department, and its headquarters sits just blocks from the Harrison Avenue bakery.
Tip jar thefts themselves have become a recurring complaint in Boston neighborhoods. Nine days before Nevels' arrest, District E-13 responded to a similar theft on October 9 at Pika Pollo JP, a Dominican takeout restaurant on Washington Street in Jamaica Plain, Boston 25 News reported in Hoodline's prior coverage of that case. It is unclear whether the two incidents are connected.
