A Boston man who authorities said got a ride from a cop minutes after breaking into a Natick gas station earlier this year was arraigned in Framingham District Court yesterday.
Athen Whigham, 44,
was arrested on a Natick warrant as he was about to be released from custody in
Suffolk County, where he has been held since a March arrest for a Boston armed
robbery.
Whigham is charged
with breaking into the Hess gas station on Rte. 9 on Jan. 15.
Prosecutor Dannon
Stacer said Whigham smashed a glass door to get into the gas station. After
failing to get the cash drawer from the register, he stole $120 worth of
cigarettes and left.
Whigham was then
seen walking on Rte. 9 in Wellesley, where an officer picked him up and drovve
him to the Brookline border, Stacer said.
After dropping off
Whigham, the officer got an alert that Natick Police were looking for a man
whose description matched Whigham.
“The officer
viewed (security) video and identified the defendant as the same person,”
Stacer said.
Natick Police
issued a warrant for Whigham’s arrest, but he had not been arrested.
Whigham, of 105
Chauncy St., was charged with breaking and entering, larceny from a building
and malicious destruction of property worth more than $250.
Stacer asked Judge
Douglas Stoddart for $5,000 bail, citing Whigham’s long record, which includes
several armed robberies.
Whigham’s lawyer,
Mark Helwig, argued that Wellesley Police had no right to stop and ask for
Whigham’s name. He also said it “was a case of mistaken identity.”
Stoddart ordered
Whigham held on $2,500 bail. He is due back in court on July 9 for a pretrial
conference.