Tuesday, November 9, 2010 8am
A Boston Police Department van was stationed in front of L&M
Bargain at 745 Dudley
Street bright and early (8am). The right-most front window of
L&M Bargain had been smashed leaving the
frame almost fully exposed. Mark Salzberg, owner, arrived shortly
afterwards.
"It has been years since the last time anything like
this happened." His storefront windows are made of two layers of
safety glass with an intermediate thermal barrier (space).
"Mark, what does it take to break through the glass?" His
response was almost jovial - refreshing given the stress he was
under. "I don't
know," he said. "I've never tried doing it myself! Why
don't you ask them," and he pointed over to the officers in the van.
The police officers said that there are several grades of commercial
glass. "The Wall," for example, is pretty tough but vandals still
manage to break through it. Generally, it takes a pretty hefty
object, like a big rock, to make the first penetration. After
that the safety glass cracks easily without shattering.
By the end of the day the new glass was in place and the store was looking "back to normal."
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Around the corner - same day - same
time. A
car parked at #3 Monadnock St (large apartment
building) had been vandalized - driver's window fully broken through -
glass everywhere and the glove box open and obviously ransacked.
Are the events related?
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11/11/2010
It
would appear that Property
Management at 78-80
Stoughton Street, a large aparment building, has authorized exterior
masonry work. On 11/11/2010 the power washing firm, All Washed
Up, was preparing the brick for repairs. The workers provided a
little insight into the process. They cautioned us not to get
too close. "Why?" we wondered, "A little water won't hurt
anybody."
From their truck, they run a generator that heats up water for the
actual high pressure cleaning. Prior to that a non-pressurized
hose is used to apply a muriatic acid solution (HCl). That's the
problem. Hydrochloric acid will burn the skin. We stayed
away from the falling water but wouldn't ya' know. A strong
breeze blew the water vapor our way. Right away we could "smell"
the acid and feel a stinging sensation in our eyes.
Using this method to clean brick is effective, dissolving the surface
dirt almost immediately. The photos below show the "reddish"
waste
coming off the surface. You can also see how paint on the lintels
has been pulled away.
11/15/2010
On Monday evening at approximately 7pm, a large van was parked in front
of the building with a name indicating "24 hour emergency service for
environmental spills." [Unfortunately, we did not get any other
information.] We spoke with the man who said he also owns the
company "All washed up." They had washed down the front of the
building today and were there to clean up the brick dust that had
washed off.
[His answer seemed a bit odd - such a large truck for such small specks of dust??]
"What product are you using?" He said an environmentally safe
product called "Safe Restore," that it contained no acid. This answer also seemed a bit odd - the smell of HCl, the sting and the workers telling us that the product was "600 something or other." So we checked online.
Hmmm. Looks like this company doesn't know their product or doesn't want to tell.
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