Police arrest suspect in string of robberies

CAUGHT Preston Jackson, (left) suspected robber.

Back Bay's suspected bandit had one last note in his pocket, but it wasn't intended for the police officers who arrested him.

Preston Jackson, 42, of Boston, was arrested Saturday after what authorities allege was at least the eighth store he tried to rob, most of them in the area of Newbury Street. Police said Jackson used the same method to rob each store and did not make any attempt to disguise himself. The uniformity of the robberies combined with anonymous tips from citizens led to Jackson's capture, police said yesterday.

On Saturday, police say Jackson walked into the Bon Bon store on Massachusetts Avenue in a plaza a few blocks from Newbury Street with a note that read "give me the money and no one will be shot." He fled when the clerk told him the store had security cameras. Employees called 911 and police caught Jackson a short time later. They brought Jackson back to Bon Bon, where employees positively identified him.

From Dec. 18 through Saturday, police say Jackson allegedly made off with hundreds of dollars from shopkeepers. Among the stores he is accused of robbing are Finagle a Bagel on Boylston Street; Chemistry, Footstock, and Dependable Cleaners on Newbury Street. He is also accused of robbing the Starbucks on Brookline Avenue in the Fenway.

On Dec. 29, police said he passed a note to a clerk there who assumed it was a drink order and began to read it aloud to a co-worker. An employee gave Jackson an unknown amount of cash from the register, and he fled, said a police spokesman. Two days before that, police had asked the public's help in finding Jackson.

Calls quickly started coming in, said police Superintendent Bruce A. Holloway, chief of the Bureau of Investigative Services, at a news conference yesterday afternoon. Jackson will be arraigned today in Boston Municipal Court on armed robbery charges.

John M. Guilfoil can be reached at jguilfoil@globe.com.