Watertown Woman Finds Herself on the Front Pages of Newspapers Across America

WATERTOWN, MA -- When Watertown became the focus of media worldwide for a few days, residents had the strange experience of watching national news programs broadcasting live from their block, or spotting their friends and family—sometimes even themselves—on the front page of a national newspaper.

During the final moments of the capture of the second Boston Marathon Bombing suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Watertown’s Jenn Grimmett, 40, went out to the corner of Mt. Auburn and Common Streets to see what was going on. She soon began receiving emails and texts.

“Friends kept sending screen shots,” Grimmett said. “I was moving all around. (TV cameras) kept catching me, and showing me on NBC, ABC and CBS.”

With a mother in West Virginia, family in North Carolina and Florida, and friends all over the country, many worried for Grimmett’s safety. The concern started with Monday’s bombings at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Her mother called her to see how close she was to the Marathon Bombings.

“On Monday, I said mom, I live in one of the most unassuming towns near Boston - I’m fine. I’m away from it. I am not near the bombing area. Watertown is far away from that,” Grimmett said. “It wasn’t quite so convincing when everything started happening Thursday.”

The Capture

Friday, the action came close to Grimmett’s doorstep. The Emmanuel College library admin assistant moved to town in May 2012, after many years living in Brighton. Her home is on a street right off Common Street, just a block from where police set up a road block when the teams of law enforcement went to get Tsarnaev out of the boat parked behind a Franklin Street home.

“When they lifted the lockdown – I have a dog and I needed to take her out for a little bit. Then all of the sudden the helicopter came back and police cars started coming,” Grimmett said. “A car was stopped in front of my house by police and there were guys with rifles pointing at the guys (in the stopped car).”

Police put the three men in a cruiser, she said, and sped away down Spring Street.

“Then I saw three police on motorcycles tearing down Common Street,” Grimmett said. “I was like, ‘OK, something is definitely going on.”

Moments later she heard a long series of gunshots not far away.

Grimmett headed into her house and started watching on TV, but the moment police announced that the bombing suspect had been captured she went out to the intersection.

“I told a friend, ‘I have to go out there!’ My friend said no don’t go, but I said 'I need to go out!'” Grimmett said.

She looked out the window, and saw people running down to the end of Common Street, at Mt. Auburn Street.

“Immediately I could tell the reason every one was gathered was to thank and cheer on all of the public safety officials and FBI that had committed themselves for the past several days to finding these guys,” Grimmett said.

Along with hundreds of people cheering on the police, firefighters and other law enforcement officials Grimmett found dozens of news crews, reporters and photographers.

“There were so many cameras there,” Grimmett said. “I was there for the reason everyone was there. I was not for there for the media,” Grimmett said. “I wasn’t really paying attention to the media coverage, we were just doing our thing during the celebration.”

People cheered and clapped as vehicles rolled by, and the bells began ringing at the Redeemer Fellowhip Church – about two blocks down Mt. Auburn Street from the roadblock.

“That was really cool,” she said.

The Photo

At one point, a photographer from the New York Times asked Grimmett for her name, but she did not think much of it.

On Saturday morning, Grimmett got a call from a friend who lives in New York City, and she knew instantly why he was calling.

“I said, ‘They did not!?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, you are on the front page of the New York Times, above the fold,'” Grimmett said. “He took a picture of it and sent it to me.”

Another friend of Grimmett's, who lives in San Francisco, spotted her on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle. It was the same photo.

The image shows a group of revelers cheering, and in the front stands Grimmett in a Red Sox T-shirt, her hands aloft as if doing The Wave and yelling encouragement to the police as they drove by.

“When the picture was taken that’s what was happening, the first convoy of trucks was coming through,” Grimmett said.

She got her own copy of the Times and got a close look at the photo. She noticed one problem.

“I saw the guy write my name down right, but then when the picture came out it said 'Jean,'" she said. "So, for evermore I will be Jean from Watertown.”

Being in the paper, let alone the New York Times, was a new experience for Grimmett

“I am not really a front-page-of-the-paper kind of gal. It’s insane,” Grimmett said. “I’m flattered, and happy to 'represent' Watertown, but there are so many other people who deserve it – people who captured the bomber, who put themselves in harms way.”