A fire broke out at a Roman Catholic church in Franklin, Massachusetts, Wednesday evening, postponing scheduled services for one of their priests who died earlier this month.
People were asked to avoid the area as the Franklin police and fire …
Massachusetts
‘Hallmark moment’: Stranger finds rings woman lost on Boston Common days before
It’s a minor miracle right out of a holiday movie: when a woman lost two cherished rings while vacationing in Boston, a stranger who was also on vacation happened to find them, moments after joining in the search.
Finding the rings on Boston Common was “total luck,” Kory Kelly told NBC10 Boston. “I mean, it was the first pile of leaves I walked over. I didn’t even bend down, I just kicked it over with my foot and there they were.”
Lori Lange had lost the two rings — one that belonged to her mother, the other her wedding ring, with a diamond for each of her seven grandchildren — when the Phoenix resident recently visited Boston on trip to her mother’s hometown last week.
The rings got lost while she was having some fun tossing the multi-colored fall leaves in the park, and it made her feel like she’d let her loved ones down: “By goofing around in leaves, I had disappointed them.”
When she realized the rings were gone, she returned to Boston days later, according to her daughter, who reached out to NBC10 Boston with the story — and the acts of kindness that followed.
Several people stopped what they were doing to search the piles of leaves and find the ring, even holding off landscapers who were going to clear the leaves. And that’s when Kelly, who was visiting Boston with his own mother, stepped in.
“We see a bunch of ladies kind of on the ground digging through the leaves and I just thought, ‘What the heck are these people doing? Is this a northeastern thing?’”
Lange said she hadn’t told anyone else what she was looking for, leaving that to her friends, but she did tell him. She recalled what happened next: “He’s like, ‘We’ve got some time. I’m going to look.’ Him and his little boot just kicked. Like, before I even had a chance really to turn around he goes, ‘Is this it?’ I’m like…is this it?’ And I really don’t remember that first ring.”
He’d found Lange’s mother’s ring in an instant, providing instant relief and sparking cheers among the people searching.
“My girlfriend is like, ‘I knew we’d find that one, if we didn’t find anything else,’” Lange said. And then Kelly said, “‘There’s two?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, there’s another one. My wedding ring. But that’s OK, that’s OK.’”
Moments later, he found that one, too — it was caught on video, with Lange screaming and hugging Kelly.
The pair had messages for one another. Kelly, who called Lange “really sweet,” said he hopes their paths cross again and that she pays the kindness forward.
Lange was more effusive about Kelly: “I had already been over that spot, there’s actual video of other people who were just standing right over that spot. Nobody saw it. Kory saw it. I will believe he had his angel wings under his little red flannel shirt. Just his demeanor, his pure love and happiness and joy, he’s such a good person. And, yeah. Summed up Boston for me! It was pretty great.”
After her “Hallmark moment,” she had a message for Boston, too.
“There’s nothing like Boston in this entire world. It’s home. It’s home — and it’s great,” she said.
More than 95,000 people sign petition protesting sweeping firearms bill in Mass.
A week-long signature gathering effort piled up on Beacon Hill this week. More than 95,000 names were collected by the Civil Rights Coalition protesting a sweeping firearms bill signed into law and enacted with an emergency preamble by Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey.
“We ask our governor and legislature, by what authority do you act upon our unalienable rights,” said Toby Leary with the Civil Rights Coalition.
“This was a grassroots effort by the citizens of the Commonwealth to once again, for the second time, shut this down,” said Jim Wallace with Gun Owners Action League.
Gun advocates call that executive action an overreach, promising to take the issue to court.
“We have been working with national partners for almost a year to divvy things up into chunks by subject matter and then bring it to federal court,” said Wallace.
But Healey shares a different perspective. Doubling down on the need for that emergency preamble and reiterating support the policies included in the law.
“My job as governor, in the interest of protecting public safety, is to make sure we implement as quickly as possible a law that bans ghost guns, that are a threat right now to people in Massachusetts and across the country,” said Healey, “It’s as simple as that.”
It’s a debate that could be decided by voters in 2026.
“It will be put to a ballot initiative either way and we’ll have two years to talk about the civics 101 that goes along with that,” said Leary.
“It came about through a democratic process, the legislature voted on this policy,” Healey said.
Car, pickup truck crash in Saugus; fire union says serious injuries
An apparently serious car crash in Saugus, Massachusetts, Wednesday left a pick-up truck and a car badly damaged.
The two vehicles appeared to have struck head-on on a road.
The Saugus fire union said the crash on Howard Street resulted in …
Cyclist taken to hospital after e-bike crash in Groton
One person was taken to the hospital after an electric bike was struck by an SUV in Groton, Massachusetts, Wednesday afternoon.
Groton police say they responded to Main Street around 3 p.m. for a reported crash involving an e-bike and found a …
Canton police looking for missing boy last seen by Boston train station
Police are looking for an 11-year-old boy missing from Canton, Massachusetts, who was last seen in Boston Wednesday.
Canton police say Zehki Byrd was last seen in the area of the Ruggles transit station wearing a black hat, a green shirt and b…
