Academic

Buddy, can you spare a dime for Tom Brady?

Dennis Paiva, who lifted -- he says mistakenly -- two flower boxes worth $8,000 from Tom Brady, panhandles on a Boston street in order to repay the football star.

A 61-year-old ex-con, who was arrested for taking two Belgian flower boxes worth $8,000 from Tom Brady, is now on the street panhandling to repay the New England Patriots quarterback.

Dennis Paiva of Malden, who claims the whole thing is a big misunderstanding, spends his days begging on the street after a Boston Municipal Court judge ordered him to pay $4,000 restitution to Brady?s realty trust.

The QB, by the way, will earn some $30 million this year in salary and endorsements.

Paiva, who worked as a trash picker, found two stainless steel metal containers behind a garage next to the trash in the ritzy Back Bay neighborhoods. He took the planters to a scrapyard and collected $450. Then he got a call from a Boston police detective.

He accepted a plea deal, including $4,000 restitution, that would dismiss the charges if he stayed out of trouble for a year. Paiva, with a prior conviction for bank robbery, didn?t want to take his chances at a trial.

Read the Boston Herald story here.

Hey, Tom, why don't you give the guy a break?

Full post as published by the 13th juror on July 11, 2009 (boomark / email).