Woman charged after vandalism at 2 downtown Hamilton businesses, including eatery

A woman has been charged with vandalizing two Main Street buildings — the front windows of Smoochies Boba & Crepes and the building that will house the Billy Yanks bar — in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Hamilton police charged 31-year-old Megan Nicole Seeley with two counts of vandalism and with criminal mischief for damage to the buildings at 113 Main St. (Smoochies) and 201 Main St. (the future Billy Yanks).

Smoochies owner Nadja Mirpuri was awakened at her nearby home by Hamilton police early Tuesday morning to inform her of the incident.

Mirpuri planned to speak with an insurance adjuster this week but was guessing damage to three of her large front windows, which she was told was caused by a hammer, would cost about $6,000. The business will remain closed until repairs are made, she said.

The woman had been charged before police reached her at home, she said.

Mirpuri hopes to reopen soon because “our customers are so supportive that they wanted to know (when the reopening would happen), and some people online said, ‘We’ve never heard of you, but once you’re open, we’re going to be there to support the business,’ so it’s really heartwarming.”

“It’s good publicity, bringing people in, when we reopen,” she said with a laugh. “We’re trying to go ahead and open because our customers, they love boba so much that they want it every day.”

Business in recent weeks has been “slow, of course, because of (COVID-19),” she said, “but we just opened Fourth of July. We did well at first, but things are getting slow again (because of the pandemic).”

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