Doughnut Shop

An early-morning doughnut shop robbery yesterday almost netted Nathaniel Hopkins a fistful of dollars, Camden police said. Instead, the gunman was harried by James Henderson, a bystander, and his escapade ended with the suspect lying on the pavement outside the Kaighn Avenue Donut Queen, police said. Hopkins, 32, of the 1400 block of Kaighn Avenue, was being held last night in the Camden County Jail on $27,500 bail, charged with armed robbery and unlawful possession of a weapon.

A mother and daughter yesterday calmly told a judge of the January morning that off-duty Philadelphia Police Officer Brien Greene came into their doughnut shop and threw a trash can, pointed a gun and threatened to kill them. "He told us he was going to trash the place, blow our brains out," Kim Seang testified during Greene's preliminary hearing. "I was scared. I thought he was going to shoot it at my mom," said Seang, referring to shop owner Phal Seang. "Honestly, I thought he was going to shoot, but his friend stopped him," Phal Seang testified.

"I'm a cop! Take it easy!" Police Officer John Fleming told one of two robbers who shoved a gun into his side during the holdup of a Northeast Philadelphia doughnut shop on Dec. 28. Fleming, 43, who was off-duty and having coffee with his wife, Susan, at 3:10 a.m. inside the Dunkin' Donuts on Rising Sun Avenue near Ruscomb Street, had to make a life or death decision. He didn't know it, but the two holdup men had allegedly killed before. As Rasheed Miller, 18, charged with two murders, was squeezing the trigger, Fleming "grabbed" the gun and struggled with him. The officer was shot in both legs.

They pistol-whipped their Philadelphia victim, stole his car and made their way to a Bryn Mawr Dunkin Donuts. Once there, they brandished a silver semiautomatic handgun, beat employees with it, and stole more than $300 from the shop. They led police on a high- speed chase and were apprehended after they slammed their car into a concrete wall on the Blue Route. Last week, Sharif Jamal Givens and Rakeem Allen Harper, both of Philadelphia, pleaded guilty in Montgomery County Court to robbery and related charges.

The patrons of Alleva's Coffee Shop in Berwyn will have to find someplace else to solve community and world problems over breakfast or the traditional Wednesday night meal of homemade spaghetti and ravioli June 30. "We decide who should coach the high school teams, who should run the Phillies and who should run the world," said "The Rev" Richard Streeter, an 18-year patron who said he calls the back dining room at Alleva's his office where he...

A former Philadelphia police officer was sentenced Friday to 11 to 23 months in prison for pointing a handgun at an owner of a West Philadelphia doughnut shop. Common Pleas Court Judge Rayford A. Means also ordered Brien Greene, 28, to serve 10 years' probation for the Jan. 11 encounter at the S.P. Doughnut Shop near 52d and Market Streets. A surveillance video shows Greene arguing with the shop's owners, a mother and daughter, after buying a doughnut. He pulled a gun and pointed it at the older woman, but a friend pushed his arm down and the two left the shop.

When he makes the doughnuts, Konstantinos Yiantsos - customers call him Gus - doesn't dare take a break. "The dough does not wait," says Gus, who owns Jack's, the landmark Lindenwold shop he named for his dad. "The dough keeps rising and rising, until it collapses, like cheesecake. Have you ever seen cheesecake when it collapses?" Can't say I have. Can't say I've ever seen someone make doughnuts, either - certainly not in the way, and in the quantity, Gus does. He turns out nearly 1,000 a week, all by hand, at the White Horse Pike "doughnut shop and cafe" he opened in 1985.

They pistol-whipped their Philadelphia victim, stole his car, and made their way to a Bryn Mawr Dunkin' Donuts, police said. There, they brandished a silver semiautomatic handgun, beat an employee with it, and stole more than $300 from the shop. They led police on a high- speed chase and were apprehended after they slammed their car into a concrete wall on the Blue Route. Last week, Sharif Jamal Givens and Rakeem Allen Harper, both of Philadelphia, pleaded guilty in Montgomery County Court to robbery and related charges.

A signed, six-page confession will be admitted as evidence in the trial of Christopher Wade Hammond, the 23-year-old Bryn Mawr man charged with killing a King of Prussia Dunkin' Donuts manager in November. Montgomery County Court Judge Marjorie Lawrence ruled yesterday that proper legal procedures were followed when a county and Upper Merion detective trekked to Ohio Jan. 23 to question Hammond about the homicide. Hammond fled the area after the slaying of 64-year-old Chandrakant Patel, a manager at the doughnut shop.

FOR THOSE OF US who don't have a prahok -slinging Phnom Penh grandma on standby, real Cambodian food is a little hard to find here, especially in comparison to the Vietnamese, Thai and Laotian options available to hungry fans of Southeast Asian cooking. Luckily, that's starting to change, with sit-downs like South Philly's Khmer Kitchen and Lawncrest's Angkor spreading the charms of the cuisine beyond the city's strong Cambodian population. While those restaurants build followings, a new venture - a little sweeter, but still fluent in Khmer - is taking shape.

DEAR ABBY: I am an adjunct teacher in a small college in the Midwest. For the most part, my students are great, but one breaks my heart. I admire him because he has overcome some incredible obstacles. Last year, he lost a good job and had to drop out for a time. He's back now, and when I asked about his new job, he said he runs a strip club. At first, I thought he was kidding, but he assured me he manages more than 50 ladies who, at the end of their shift, leave with their lives and their dignity.

David Timbers, the West Philadelphia man wanted for tossing a cup of scalding hot coffee at a doughnut shop cashier, was charged today with aggravated assault and other related charges. Timbers, 52, of the 3700 block of Haverford Avenue, surrendered at Police Headquarters Monday, and was charged this morning. He was released after posting 10 percent of $25,000 bail. Besides aggravated assault, he was charged with simple assault, possession of an instrument of crime (the hot coffee)

Minutes before the Fresh Donuts shop on Lancaster Avenue closed Saturday, Tamara Harris and her daughter, Tanjanique, 16, stopped in. They wanted to give a get-well card to shop employee Sokchea Luy, 27. "I couldn't believe someone would do something like that," said Tamara Harris, who is a crossing guard at a nearby school and stops by daily for coffee and something to eat. "These are really nice people. " People have been dropping in with cards, good wishes, and even money since Tuesday morning, when a well-dressed man, a regular customer, lost his temper in the store and threw a cup of hot coffee at Luy. He badly burned her upper arm, but it might have been worse if she hadn't used the arm to shield her face.

This is an excerpt from Craig LaBan's online chat.   Craig: I did a fair bit of casserole-dish cooking these last couple of weeks, including one of my favorite dishes for leftover brisket: shepherd's pie. All I do is crumble about 1-2 pounds of leftover brisket into a sauté pan with carrots, parsnips, leeks, peas, and garlic. Add half a can of tomato paste, a cup of white wine (or more, just to moisten), then layer into a casserole pan below some fresh mashed potatoes (about 2 pounds worth)

A former Philadelphia police officer was sentenced Friday to 11 to 23 months in prison for pointing a handgun at an owner of a West Philadelphia doughnut shop. Common Pleas Court Judge Rayford A. Means also ordered Brien Greene, 28, to serve 10 years' probation for the Jan. 11 encounter at the S.P. Doughnut Shop near 52d and Market Streets. A surveillance video shows Greene arguing with the shop's owners, a mother and daughter, after buying a doughnut. He pulled a gun and pointed it at the older woman, but a friend pushed his arm down and the two left the shop.

Surveillance footage led police to arrest a 51-year-old West Oak Lane man who allegedly burglarized a convenience store and a doughnut shop on 5th Street near Olney Avenue in early June. Curtis Hairston, of Walnut Lane near Limekiln Pike, was arrested after someone who recognized him from the video that police posted online emailed a tip. About 5:15 a.m. June 9, Hairston allegedly pried his way into the rear entrance of M.T.T. Sales and Service and used a pair of pants to cover his head once he was inside.

When he makes the doughnuts, Konstantinos Yiantsos - customers call him Gus - doesn't dare take a break. "The dough does not wait," says Gus, who owns Jack's, the landmark Lindenwold shop he named for his dad. "The dough keeps rising and rising, until it collapses, like cheesecake. Have you ever seen cheesecake when it collapses?" Can't say I have. Can't say I've ever seen someone make doughnuts, either - certainly not in the way, and in the quantity, Gus does. He turns out nearly 1,000 a week, all by hand, at the White Horse Pike "doughnut shop and cafe" he opened in 1985.

This is what happens when art imitates life: a Pulitzer Prize-winning author writes a comedy about a doughnut shop whose owner is urged to sell the place to a neighbor. The theater producing the play needs 18 fresh doughnuts per performance (times 36 performances equals 648) and wants to get them donated, so a staffer there calls around. And wouldn't you know it - she unknowingly calls a place where the owner recently sold to a neighbor, just like in the script. "It's ironic, isn't it," says John Colosi, 43, who bought Frangelli's Bakery at Ninth and Ritner a year ago when Anthony Frangelli turned 72 and wanted to sleep late.