3 lab rats sent out to play at restaurant
Police charge city labor leader
—————-By all accounts, this was an unusual tactic in a labor dispute, even for Boston.
Thursday night, right in the midst of the dinnertime rush at one of the city’s fanciest steakhouses, The Capital Grille on Newbury Street, a local labor leader allegedly walked into the dining room, opened a white shopping bag, and let three white rats loose. A commotion ensued as the varmints scurried about and diners slicing $40 cuts of dry aged sirloin and other succulent entrees scattered. Out the door, police say, ran Louis J. Antonellis, a business agent for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 103, pursued by the restaurant’s manager and a parking valet.
Officers caught Antonellis a few blocks away and marched him back to the restaurant, where employees identified him as the man who had released the rodents. A police report suggested that Antonellis’s motive had nothing to do with the food, which diners often rank among the best in Boston….
So says an August 5, 2006 report in the Boston Globe.