Hockey troubles spill into Westmount

A garbage receptacle was torched on Greene Avenue between Sherbrooke Street and de Maisonneuve Boulevard late Monday night. The fire was called in at 12:02 a.m., and Westmount Public Security officers managed to extinguish the flames.

"The Public Security officers extinguished the fire before the firefighters appeared on the scene," said Westmount Public Security Captain Richard Bourdon. "Thankfully, we stopped the fire before there was any real damage."

Bourdon said that there were no suspects in the incident, but "we think it's related to the same events that happened downtown." On Ste. Catherine Street in the Ville-Marie borough, Canadiens fans celebrating the 5-0 game seven victory over the Boston Bruins set fire to police vehicles and vandalized stores.

Police finally dispersed the crowd around 2 a.m. and 16 people were arrested.

Fraudsters prey on Westmounters

In the last month, three separate residents have brought scam letters to the attention of Station 12 police. The letters, claiming to be from representatives of the Bank of Spain, purport that a Mr. Murphy, killed in a train accident in Spain, is a distant relative of the letter's recipient. He died with a sizable bank balance of $77 million. The recipient is asked to contact the number listed in the letter and leave their own contact information if they want to gain access to a portion of the money.

"It's really a fraud," said Station 12 Constable Caroline Gauthier. "When we get this type of letter, we send it to the RCMP. This type of fraud has been going on for years. The RCMP has a project called Phone Busters just to work on these scams."

Gauthier asks residents who receive this letter or ones like it to bring it to the attention of police. "The more we have of these the better (for the investigation),"she said, warning residents to never give out personal information after receiving this type of letter.

Sherbrooke closed by possible bomb

Many Westmounters were faced with an early morning inconvenience on Monday with the closure of Sherbrooke Street between Victoria and Grey avenues while police dealt with a possible bomb that had been tossed into the Crossroads bar, just over the border in NDG.

According to police, it all began around 4:30 a.m. when an object, later described as a modified fire extinguisher, was thrown through the window of the bar, then promptly thrown back outside by one of the bar's owners, who happened to be inside at the time.

Police closed the street and evacuated approximately 100 people from the adjacent apartment building until the bomb squad had completed its operation.

The street had reopened and things were back to normal by mid-morning.