Duct Tape

A onetime foster father accused of duct-taping children in his care pleaded guilty yesterday in Bucks County Court. Neil Broe, 42, once held out as a shining example of the county's foster-parent program, pleaded guilty to felony charges of endangering the welfare of children, false imprisonment, and conspiracy. No sentencing date was set. He faces punishment that could range from probation to 10 years in prison. The Levittown man is expected to testify this week against his estranged wife, Colleen, who faces similar charges.

Colleen Broe, a Levittown mother who became a national target of outrage over allegations that she illegally duct-taped her foster children, was found not guilty of child-abuse charges last night in Bucks County Court. After more than six hours of deliberations, a jury acquitted Broe, 34, of endangering the welfare of children, false imprisonment, and conspiracy, all felonies. The verdicts, announced at 8:20 p.m., left Broe shaking and sobbing uncontrollably on the shoulder of her attorney, Andrew Schneider.

Colleen Broe, a Levittown mother who became a national target of outrage over allegations that she illegally duct-taped her foster children, was found not guilty of child-abuse charges last night in Bucks County Court. After more than six hours of deliberations, a jury acquitted Broe, 34, of endangering the welfare of children, false imprisonment, and conspiracy, all felonies. The verdicts, announced at 8:20 p.m., left Broe shaking and sobbing uncontrollably on the shoulder of her attorney, Andrew Schneider.

"Stash away the duct tape," Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge advised yesterday, but "be ready. " The counsel came as Ridge announced a terrorism-preparedness Web site and manual during a visit to an Ohio Red Cross center, chosen to suggest that Washington and New York are not terrorists' only possible targets. "An emergency is not a time to plan; it's the time to react," Ridge said. "We can be afraid or we can be ready, and today Americans declare we will not be afraid and we will be ready.

Apparently, wrapping duct tape around one's head pulls the wool over other people's eyes. Last night, "mind reader" Eric Dittelman, 26, of Westborough, Mass., wowed the audience on "America's Got Talent," by correctly guessing that which judge drew what on sheets of paper. Maybe they should change the name of the show to "America's Got Suckers. " C'mon, folks, do you really believe some bespectacled schlub, who admitted to practicing stage magic as a kid, can really pick images from brains with precision?

The most frequent question Ryan McLaughlin gets about her duct-tape prom gown is: "Doesn't it stick to you?" No, it doesn't, explains the Great Valley High School junior: The top is double-faced, sticky side to sticky side, and the skirt is lined with a shower curtain liner. Far from its hardware-store origins, the dress looks as if it were made from fine, pliable leather woven into squares. The black, sleeveless top is laced up the back corset-style with ribbon, and the ankle-length black skirt ties at the waist.

Caira Ferguson might have thought it was hilarious to wrap duct tape around her 2-year-old daughter, from mouth to ankles, and pose for photos as if her living room were Abu Ghraib prison. But police in Delaware County weren't laughing yesterday when they charged Ferguson, 21, with unlawful restraint, false imprisonment and child endangerment after she confessed to taping the girl to her little purple chair last summer. And Magisterial District Judge C. Walter McCray III was equally unamused when Ferguson appeared for her arraignment.

We live in a duct-tape world. Nobody knows that better than the Duct-Tape Guys, Tim Nyberg and Jim Berg. "It's the ultimate power tool," Nyberg says. "We know; we're duct-tape evangelists. " They're stuck on their favorite subject. The team of brothers-in-law has written seven books (and 15 years' worth of page-a-day calendars) about the ubiquitous tape. "It's got thousands of uses, including some pretty incredible stuff, but who's counting?" Nyberg says. "It's limitless what you can do. " Their motto: "It's not broke; it just needs duct tape.

When Joe Girandola took a job apprenticing as a stone carver in Italy back in 1989, he learned quite quickly that this romantic career move had a painful downside: It was blisteringly hard work, and gloves only made the blisters worse. Quickly, though, Girandola devised a solution. He wrapped his hands each morning in "gloves" made of duct tape, shipped by the case from his parents in the United States. Soon, the tape became even more interesting to him than the stone he was sculpting.

The images of two wide-eyed toddlers, their arms bound snugly to their torsos with layered rings of duct tape, stared from a projector screen in a Bucks County courtroom. They were the foster children of Colleen Broe, 34, a Levittown homemaker accused of abusing them. As Broe's child-endangerment trial opened yesterday, lawyers alternately portrayed her as a sneaky, selfish phony or as the victim of a set-up by a jealous, devious husband she was trying to shed. "Colleen Broe had two sides," Chief Deputy District Attorney Michelle Henry told jurors in her opening statement.

RENO, Nev. - A body believed to be that of Nevada's missing chief insurance examiner was found wrapped in a blanket and bound with duct tape Saturday in a river in Carson City, and four people were arrested in the case, authorities said. Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said that while a positive identification and cause of death have not been officially established, investigators believe the body found by searchers in the Carson River is that of William McCune, who disappeared last week.

MONDAY'S home-invasion robbery in which four Temple students were bound with duct tape by three gunmen in their near-campus apartment in North Philadelphia may be part of a pattern in the area, police said Tuesday. "I'm not going to say it's isolated. We've had some robberies in that particular area," said Capt. Roland Lee, commander of the 22nd Police District, headquartered at 17th Street and Montgomery Avenue - blocks from the victims' apartment near 18th and Berks streets. Lee added that students have not been the only ones targeted in recent months.

It's a parent's nightmare. And four Temple University students lived it Monday night, when three armed men forced their way inside an off-campus apartment in North Philadelphia, bound the women in duct tape, and fled with computer equipment, cellphones, credit cards, and cash. The students were not physically hurt. But the incident revived fears of dangers that lurk near the city's campuses, and offered an unsettling echo of incidents in which armed men invaded students' apartments near Temple and Drexel University.

Philadelphia police have charged two men with aggravated assault and related offenses in Monday's home-invasion robbery of four Temple University students who live near campus. A third man is still being sought. Police did not release the names of the two in custody Wednesday, saying that information was part of an ongoing investigation. The men were arrested by officers from Central Detectives and the 22d District, based on tips that followed the public release of security video Tuesday night, police said.

Goldfish threat to Lake Tahoe SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Giant goldfish could threaten the ecology of Lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada border. Biologists at the University of Nevada, Reno, say they're finding a growing number of the fish in the crystal-clear lake. Researcher Sudeep Chandra said the discovery was especially worrisome because the fish excrete "lots of nutrients" that stimulate algae growth. Some of the fish have grown to 18 inches. How the fish got into the lake is not clear, but they are believed to have come from people dumping their aquariums.

Police have found the stolen car used in the kidnapping of a jeweler whose Montgomery County store was robbed of items worth $1.5 million by bandits who had ransacked his Chester County home. Four armed men accosted Howard Zenker, owner of Shuler's Jewelers, in his driveway on Wooded Way in Tredyffrin Township on Jan. 31 and bound him and his wife with duct tape inside their house. Zenker was then taken in his own car to his business, in East Norriton, where he was forced to open safes.

When Joe Girandola took a job apprenticing as a stone carver in Italy back in 1989, he learned quite quickly that this romantic career move had a painful downside: It was blisteringly hard work, and gloves only made the blisters worse. Quickly, though, Girandola devised a solution. He wrapped his hands each morning in "gloves" made of duct tape, shipped by the case from his parents in the United States. Soon, the tape became even more interesting to him than the stone he was sculpting.

A man was found screaming - his face duct-taped and arms bound - on a South Philadelphia street this morning after he was abducted in Frankford. Northeast Detectives said events began about 4:20 a.m. when the victim, in his 20s, was walking to his home on the 5100 block of Walker Street in Frankford. Two armed men grabbed him as he approached the house and forced him inside, where his girlfriend was also staying, police said. Initial reports said up to five men took part.

Three men were charged in the abduction of a 24-year-old woman who was able to escape being bound with rope and duct tape in an abandoned Southwest Philadelphia house, police said Thursday. Caleb Davis, 19; Rafiq Young, 19; and Chero Weaver, 22, were charged with kidnapping, robbery, and related offenses, said Lt. John Walker of Southwest Detectives. The three men allegedly forced their way into a home in the 900 block of North 66th Street looking for a man and a large amount of money Wednesday morning, Walker said.