Police nab notorious Mass. "Tree Ninja" -- again

BRIGHTON, Mass. -- Police say they've arrested a man who keeps vandalizing trees in a suburban Boston neighborhood, reports CBS Boston.

Dubbed the "Tree Ninja," police say Joe Rizza, 66, was arrested Monday evening as he was seen by detectives snapping branches off a tree on private property. Police had been keeping an eye on the street in Brighton after several residents recently complained of tree damage.

It's not the first time the notorious ninja has been cuffed, the station reports. Last April, police say Rizza was arrested after detectives saw him attacking a tree. They say he tried to hide the hammer he had been using, but detectives saw it anyway.

Flyers posted in the neighborhood have warned residents about the "master of evasion" who has cost the community thousands of dollars in tree removal spending, according to CBS Boston. The flyers say the trees have been "destroyed or maimed at the hands of one man who lives among us."

"The tree killer has now moved on to damaging and destroying flowering shrubs and bushes. YOURS COULD BE NEXT," the poster reads.

Rizza appeared in Brighton District Court Tuesday on charges of willful and malicious destruction of property.

Police say he is also the likely culprit in six other incidents of tree vandalism.