Break Ins

Homeowners in central Delaware County continued to be plagued by break-ins, with three more occurring early Friday, one involving the rape of an Upper Providence woman. Police in that township issued a bulletin alerting residents to lock their doors and windows and to keep their wallets and purses out of view. Accompanying the bulletin, which was stuffed in mailboxes in the vicinity of the break-ins, was a mug shot of Jeffery Andrew Page, 29, who was arrested March 9 and charged with 55 burglaries in the Media-Nether Providence-Upper Providence area since last summer.

The burglary of four apartments at a Northeast retirement community last weekend may have been committed by someone who knew that the elderly victims were either deaf or hearing-impaired, police said. On Saturday, four tenants, aged 75 to 86, reported burglaries at their ground-floor apartments at Lafayette Retirement Community, 8580 Verree Rd. A total of about $1,465 in cash and personal items were taken, police said. An attempt was made to break into a fifth apartment, police said.

"No witnesses, no fingerprints, no nothing. " That's how Monroe Police Detective Robert Armstrong described the recent wave of daylight burglaries plaguing the township. Lt. Stan Schoenewald says that during the past three months, there have been 8 to 10 incidents involving thieves kicking open the doors to houses in well-populated areas of the township during the daytime. The burglars work fast, Schoenewald said. "People could go out for a few minutes and it could happen.

As Police Capt. Jack Robinson put it, people leave "the damnedest things in their cars. " And the thieves are finding them. During the last 10 days, at least five vans, some with out-of-state license plates, have been broken into by enterprising thieves who are stealing everything from carpenters' and plumbers' tools to cash. Robinson said his department was seeing a rash of van break-ins. Some of the vans are parked at motels and owned by travelers or laborers who come into the area to do a job. "They stay at a motel overnight.

The burglary of four apartments at a Northeast Philadelphia retirement community last weekend may have been committed by someone who knew that the elderly victims were either deaf or hearing-impaired, police said. On Saturday, four tenants, aged 75 to 86, reported burglaries at their ground-floor apartments at Lafayette Retirement Community, 8580 Verree Rd. A total of about $1,465 in cash and personal items were taken, police said. An attempt was made to break into a fifth apartment, police said.

Members of the Joseph D. Brinkley Square Club had looked forward to becoming a good neighbor in North Philadelphia when they moved in 1985 into a three-story building at the corner of 22d Street and Glenwood Avenue. Ed Gore, president of the club, a civic organization affiliated with the Masons, said the group planned on bringing both aid and cheer to the neighborhood, which like so many in the city is embattled by poverty, drugs and crime. "We wanted to bring something to the community.

Thieves have broken into animal shelters in Chester and Delaware Counties four times in the last four months, taking office equipment and pit bulls and in one case scrawling Nazi symbols on doors and walls. Law enforcement authorities think the incidents may be the work of the same group, and the incident at the Chester County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in West Goshen has been tied to a group of neo-Nazi "skinheads" in the Baltimore area, said Detective Sharon Lynn of the West Goshen police.

Yeadon residents living near MacDade Boulevard and Church Lane say they have been victimized by a wave of car break-ins and robberies over the last six weeks. Speaking during the public comment portion of Thursday's Borough Council meeting, one resident said that her car had been broken into twice in the last week and another complained of several robberies near Pleasant Road and Highland Avenue. "We've been hit extra hard in the last six weeks," said Dan Brady. "There should be more patrols and more awareness.

If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing well - even, apparently, if what you happen to be doing is burglary. At least six stores in the Parkway Center Mall in West Goshen were robbed Wednesday night of approximately $6,000, according to police, and the word on most of the merchants' lips the next day was professional. "They were extremely neat," said Alexander Rech, owner of Parkway Hardware, which lost several hundred dollars. "These guys had real class. They were very neat about going into the tills; they didn't break the computers.

On the afternoon of Sept. 25, Robert Dunseath returned to his home in the 1500 block of Auburn Drive in Bensalem. When he entered his house, he told police, he heard scurrying and saw three teenagers making a beeline away from the house. A rock had been thrown through his kitchen window, and missing from his bedroom were a Gucci watch and a gold chain with a Playboy key charm, he told police. Ten minutes later, Bensalem police arrested three teenagers, breaking up a group that had been responsible for burglarizing a handful of Lower Bucks houses, court records show.

After admitting that she embezzled $509,000 from a South Philadelphia bank, Katherine Harrell got a huge break last year. Swayed by accounts of her cooperation with the FBI and Harrell's claim that her son and bedridden brother would be institutionalized without her being free to care for them, a judge sentenced the Lansdowne woman to just a day in prison. Problem is, Harrell was lying. Her brother was never in a car crash, as she had claimed. Her parents were ready to care for her boy. On Thursday, Harrell's fate swung to the other end of the punishment spectrum.

Vanessa Sargent, 25, never made it home on Christmas Eve 1982 from Dixon's, a pub in Darby Township. Two days later, her body was found in a field just blocks from her home, naked from the waist down and stabbed more than 30 times. A part-time police officer was described as one of the last people to be seen with her. For lack of evidence, he was never charged. Another officer was charged with obstruction of justice but was later acquitted. A 9-year-old girl lost her mother, a family lost a loved one, and a police department, viewed with suspicion particularly in the African American community, saw public trust plummet.

The two armed men who robbed an upscale house in a remote section of Hilltown Township, Bucks County on Friday entered through a first-floor bedroom window around 6 a.m., according to local authorities, providing new information about the crime that left one man dead and two suspects on the loose. After climbing in, the men located Joseph Canazaro, 48, his girlfriend (whose name has not been released), and his 12-year old son, tied the three of them up, held them at gunpoint, and scoured the house for valuables, according to Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler and Hilltown Township police chief Christopher Engelhart.

BELLEFONTE, PA. - A man faces trial for allegedly stealing $1.50 in change from a church collection jar. Police say 31-year-old Jason Stover broke into the Holy Trinity Orthodox Church in State College earlier this month and swiped six quarters from a jar set up for charitable donations. Stover waived a preliminary hearing Wednesday on charges including burglary, criminal trespass and institutional vandalism. The Centre Daily Times reports the church installed a security camera after a series of break-ins starting in September.

Nick Higgins completed his eighth straight shutout, and La Salle earned its first state-playoff win in boys' soccer by defeating Pennsbury, 2-0, Tuesday at Northeast. The senior goalie turned away four shots and was aided by a strong defensive unit anchored by midfielder Jack Dusing. Explorers coach Bob Peffle said Higgins' biggest challenge comes when La Salle controls the pace for a long period of time before the opponent creates an offensive break. "But he's been secure," Peffle said.

DENVER - Drew Brees welcomed back New Orleans interim coach Joe Vitt from his bounty banishment Sunday night by extending his NFL record to 50 consecutive games with a touchdown toss, the 300th of his career. Brees added another just before the two-minute warning Sunday night to surpass Denver Hall of Famer John Elway for sixth on the career list. But almost nothing else went right for the Saints in a 34-14 loss to the Broncos. The 2-5 Saints, who will host the 3-4 Eagles on Monday night, became the first team to allow 400-plus yards in seven straight games since at least 1950 - as far back as Stats LLC can search its NFL database.

Police are hoping surveillance video will help identify two men believed to be connected to two break-ins in as many nights at Saint Gabriel's Convent in Grays Ferry. The grainy video was taken on Oct. 17 and 18, and show two men in hoodies shielding their faces, and then the face of one suspect without a hoodie. Philadelphia police said the pair are responsible for entering the convent on Dickinson Street through an unlocked front window. In the first incident, at 1:45 a.m. Oct. 17, the thieves snatched $150 in cash from a purse and fled.

THOUGH DAVE Gavrilov's sport of choice is the one played by your Philadelphia Eagles, the best way to describe his situation is to mention the names of two Phillies. Gavrilov, a 6-foot, 180-pound senior at George Washington High, is always Roy Halladay. He's never Jonathan Papelbon. You see, this version of the Eagles employs two quarterbacks. Gavrilov, who plays no defense, is the starter and Al Augustine, also a first-string safety, is the closer. This is Year No. 2 of the arrangement and if Gavrilov finds it frustrating to share QBing responsibilities, well, perhaps he has a future in poker.

A 12-inch water main broke in University City this morning, forcing the Philadelphia Water Department to shut off nearby service, and causing traffic to slow. John DiGiulio, a spokesman for the department, said crews were at the scene of the break around Market street between 42nd and 43 Streets. DiGiulio said he did not have an estimate on when repairs would be complete and water service turned on for the block. The break is not on the scale of Saturday's 36-inch transmission pipe break in Old City that rushed five million to six million gallons of water through that area.

The Fire Department has responded to a water main break in the 1800 block of North 4th Street in North Philadelphia. The extent of any flooding is not clear yet, but the street is closed in the area of the break. The 1800 block is between Cecil B. Moore Avenue and West Berks Street.