Elena Aramini was coming back to her off-campus house on Gerald Road Tuesday night when she came face to face with a man in her front yard.
“He turned around and faced me, and he had the hoodie zipped all the way up to his chin, and you couldn’t see his face,” Aramini, MCAS ’26, said. “He had a full mask on, no eye holes, no mouth holes, nothing—it was a completely covered mask in black.”
The incident prompted the BPD to issue a Community Alert, seeking aid from the public in identifying the suspect.
“Suspect is described as a male who was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, thick gray gloves, light gray pants, and black and gray sneakers with white soles, white logo on the sides, and a black fabric covering his entire face with no eye or mouth openings.”
Aramini said she approached her house from the back after walking through her neighbor’s backyard when she first noticed the man on her property.
“I saw him peeking through our windows—just a man in long pants, a sweatshirt, and working gloves on, so I kind of was like, ‘Oh, maybe somebody was doing work [on the house] while I was gone,’” Aramini said. “Really odd because it’s after nine o’clock at this point.”
The man then made eye contact with Aramini before walking onto the patio of the house, she said.
“He kind of just looked at me for about 10 seconds, and then casually, nonchalant, turned around and walked up onto our patio,” Aramini said.
The man then stood on Aramini’s patio before leaving the property, she said.
“He stopped on top of our patio, right in front of our back patio door, which is where I was going to get in,” Aramini said. “He turned around again and looked at me for another good five to 10 seconds, and then again, casually turned around and walked down the side of our house out onto what would be Gerald [Rd.], and then I just ran inside and locked the door quickly behind me and told my roommates what happened, and we called 911.”
Aramini said the police also informed her and her roommates that the suspect would likely return.
“They know people are moving in, and so they know we’re easy targets, and they will come back more than once, [the police] said,” Aramini said.
Rachel Kelly, MCAS ’26, lives across the street from the house where the masked man was spotted and said a BCPD officer urged her and her roommates to take additional precautions to protect their house.
“He actually told us to set up the Ring camera, put down our shades, all of our blinds, lock the doors, of course, and explained that there was a girl walking home and saw a man in our next door neighbor’s backyard peering through the windows,” Kelly said.
Though Kelly said the incident was shocking, she added that she and her roommates were aware of the neighborhood’s history of safety concerns.
“We’d heard of previous break-ins on Gerald—the people who lived in our house had a few break-ins even,” Kelly said.
This is not the first time that BC students living off campus in Brighton have witnessed suspicious activity. In February, a masked man was seen lurking on the back porch of BC students’ off-campus residence.
Following that incident, the Boston Police Department (BPD) issued a community-wide alert, advising Brighton residents to be increasingly vigilant and take additional precautions to ensure the safety of their homes.
BPD said it is actively reviewing the incidents and encouraged anyone who has information about the suspect to call its tip line anonymously.
“Community members wishing to assist this investigation anonymously can do so by calling the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1 (800) 494-TIPS or by texting the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463),” the alert reads. “The Boston Police Department will stringently guard and protect the identities of all those who wish to help this investigation in an anonymous manner.”
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