--Don't mess with the elderly in this city. They are not easy targets. A guy found that out when he tried to steal an old woman's purse at the Downtown Crossing T stop. On Wednesday night, Christopher Linehan, 29, of Dorchester, tried to snatch the purse of the unidentified 79-year-old woman. Neither party would let go of the purse, so Linehan tried dragging the woman to one of the black turnstiles.

Good Samaritans started blocking Linehan and grabbing at him, eventually pulling his pants down as he tried to escape. The police arrived, and the woman got to keep her bag.

--A judge cracked down on the 15-year-old suspected of shooting another man in Thursday's shooting near the Forest Hills T stop. The suspect is being held on $740,000 bail, and two other young men who may have been involved, Karl Baxter and Andre Givens, are being held on $100,000 and $250,000, respectively. Baxter is allegedly a "high-impact player" within the gang known as the Lucerne Street Doggz.

--Watch out for a young white guy driving a 1999 purple Honda Accord in Cambridge. This guy flipped out when a parking official tried to write him a ticket for being double-parked on Cambridge Street. The man threatened to sic his friend's dog on the officer, he punched the officer, and then he bumped the officer's leg with his car before taking off.

--A phone caller has been creeping out Harvard students. A man known as the "serial whisperer" has been calling Harvard on and off for the past few years, whispering that he would just like someone to hold, and he might be up to his old tricks. Harvard police aren't saying if it is the same guy, but his calls follow a pattern.

--After getting a bad rap for luring people into muggings, mySpace is now being used as a tool for good, at least in Somerville. According to the Somerville News, a man who had been mugged for his cell phone by Lexington Park on September 16 started looking for someone selling a similar phone on Craigslist. The man brought in police and set up a meeting with the seller. The seller responded by sending a link to his MySpace page, and, wouldn't you know it, the crime victim immediately recognized the seller as one of the guys who mugged him. Police set up a sting and arrested 21-year-old Casey Kolenda.

All charges alleged until proven under law. Image of Rabid Grannies from Amazon.