Homeless Men Help Foil Mass. Arson Attempt

An unlikely crime-fighting alliance of an MBTA police officer and a pair of down-and-out panhandlers near South Station foiled an alleged arson-for-hire scheme on Cape Cod and led to the arrest of a Harwich man.

Benjamin Parker, 26, was arrested Saturday and charged with attempted arson, conspiracy and possession of an explosive device in an elaborate scheme to pay two homeless men $1,100 to set fire to a single-family home on the Cape. Parker will be arraigned today in Orleans District Court.

Harwich cops are crediting MBTA police officer Gerald Dorsainvil for listening to a vagrant's bizarre tale and acting on it.

"The MBTA officer could have easily dismissed a homeless guy saying, 'Beat it, you're a pain in the neck,' but he didn't," said Aram Goshgarian, a spokesman for the Harwich Police Department.

Dorsainvil was on a routine security inspection at South Station on Thursday, when he spotted a homeless man with a placard that read, "Help me, Please, I am unemployed."

The man told the officer that a driver had approached him and a buddy two weeks ago at Atlantic and Kneeland streets asking if they wanted to make some extra money. The homeless men agreed, and the driver returned Thursday at about 6 p.m. and said, 'You still want the job, this involves burning down a house; I'll be back at 8,' " police said.

The homeless men agreed but then approached Dorsainvil, who reported the scheme to his supervisors. The two homeless men agreed to play along with a police sting, and got into the man's car. They were driven to the Cape as state troopers and Boston police followed in unmarked cars, police said.

"We have a pretty good relationship with the homeless," Dorsainvil told the Herald. "The chief always reminds us not to dismiss anyone, because there's ... a chance in a million, like this one, that the information can help stop a crime."

McClatchy-Tribune News Service