Heist

The idea of "honor among thieves" may have become somewhat of a cliche in the movies since the days Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson doubled-crossed their own, but there's little familiar or commonplace in the merits of two new video releases this week that take a rigorous look at "the heist" and the men and women who pull them. In the running for an Academy Award next week, Ben Kingsley gives a riveting portrayal of malevolence in the British thriller "Sexy Beast" (VHS: priced for rental; DVD: $29.99)

A North Philadelphia man surrendered yesterday for a bank robbery in Abington Township on Wednesday during which a teller was shot and wounded, Abington police said. Malcolm Darryl Keyes, 22, of Myrtlewood Street near Oakdale, was one of two suspects being sought for robbing the Mellon/PSFS branch in the Benjamin Fox Pavilion in Abington Township, police said. He was charged with robbery and related charges and was being held on $50,000 bail. A teller, who was wounded in the leg during the robbery, was in stable condition last night at Abington Memorial Hospital, but her identity was being withheld.

The man who pulled the daring daylight heist of an armored car in North Philadelphia yesterday caused scores of welfare and food-stamp recipients a long, anxious wait for service. Women, many with children in tow, and some men grumbled about the inconvenience, but most stayed on, saying they couldn't leave without their welfare checks and the stamps necessary to feed their families. Finally, another truck arrived with the stamps and cash, and the agency reopened. The gunman pulled the $119,000 robbery just before 9 a.m. as a Federal Armored Express truck was delivering boxes of food stamps at a loading dock on Park Avenue at the rear of the Financial Exchange Co. at 1601 N. Broad St. Police said a guard entered the firm, just across from Progress Plaza, and delivered six boxes of food stamps.

The FBI charged three people with bank robbery yesterday after an improbable series of events followed a midafternoon holdup of a Roxborough bank. It all began about 2:40 p.m., when an off-duty police officer spotted two robbers running from the Roxborough-Manayunk Federal Savings Bank on Ridge and Lyceum Avenues. The men made it to their getaway car, but one of them accidentally shot himself in the leg getting into it. A woman was behind the wheel. The officer, meanwhile, flagged down a patrol car that happened to be passing by and relayed details of the robbery.

The exterminating company owner was shooting pool in a Southwest Philadelphia hall last year when two thugs came in and unleashed their terror on him. Grant Powell testified that he was shooting pool at 1:30 a.m. at 61st Street and Passyunk Avenue on May 22, 1998, when Stephen Agee, 23, and Justin Hall, 17, both of South Philadelphia, held him up at gunpoint while about 25 shocked people looked on. They stole two rings from the victim's fingers,...

Head teller Stephanie Morrell's Halloween trick on her bank in 1986 turned out to be only a short-term treat for herself and her friends. Morrell, 22 and four months pregnant, yesterday was sentenced to a five- year prison term by a federal judge in Philadelphia for planning a Halloween heist that netted her and her friends $144,500. Morrell, who admitted planning the job, and her friends later told authorities they spent most of the money "on drugs and partying," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth Weber.

WHEN THE KING of ultraviolent wrestling suffered severed arteries during a match, he wanted to keep fighting while blood shot from his armpit like a small geyser. "Just wrap it," Nick "F'n" Gage told the people screaming "Call 9-1-1. " Gage, a berserker whose brutal brand of wrestling has made him a legend in the Philadelphia-based Combat Zone Wrestling, has been set on fire, hit with chairs, tables and worse, and has seen his blood spilled all around the world. The only thing that could stop Gage was Gage, also known as Nicholas W. Wilson, the South Jersey native who created the character in 1999.

A Philadelphia man who worked as an elementary-school custodian has been convicted of charges stemming from a 2008 bank robbery in Easttown Township. After deliberating about 3 1/2 hours, a Chester County jury on Friday night found Marcellus Oliphant, 41, guilty of robbery, conspiracy and related offenses for a heist at the Devon branch of Wachovia Bank on Feb. 1, 2008. Oliphant's co-defendants, George Carter IV, 25, and Luther Chapman, 25, both of Philadelphia, testified against him. They are awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty.

Burglars sneaked into the posh Bailey Banks & Biddle jewelry store at 16th and Chestnuts streets over the weekend in an operation so slick that they bagged an estimated $1 million worth of jewels without setting off one alarm. The caper, police said, was so smooth that no one knew of the heist until yesterday morning, though it might have been pulled off as early as Saturday evening. "It was very professional," said Police Capt. John Hanejko, commanding officer of the Central Detective Division, which is in charge of the investigation.

Two North Philadelphia people who robbed a South Street jewelry store in February, leaving their 4-year-old son behind, were sentenced Wednesday in Common Pleas Court. Judge Charles J. Cunningham III ordered John Benson, 48, to serve 30 to 72 years in state prison. Benson's ex-girlfriend, Sheakia Stubbs, 32, received a sentence of 111/2 to 23 months in county jail with immediate parole and two years of supervised probation. Benson and Stubbs were convicted in August of stealing $70,000 worth of rings from the Platinum & Ice jewelry store Feb. 27. Benson slashed store owner Yaniv Cohen's face and left the couple's son, Simir, behind as he ran away.

Police today released a surveillance video of three men wanted in the theft of a safe containing $100,000 in cash and jewelry during a daylight burglary in Society Hill. The brazen heist took place around lunchtime on Monday, April 30, on the 500 block of Spruce Street. Police said the trio arrived about 8:10 a.m. in a black SUV and parked it on the corner of Sixth and Cypress Streets. They remained inside the vehicle until about 12:40 p.m. They broke into the residence through a side window and pried the safe from the floor, police said, The video shows one of the burglars, all of whom wore gray hoodies, lugging the safe across the street to the waiting SUV, before fleeing south on Sixth Street just before 1 p.m. Police provided the following descriptions: Suspect No. 1: Black male,20 years-of-age, medium build, medium complexion, light facial hair, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, light blue jeans, black belt, sneakers Suspect No. 2: Black male, 20 years-of-age, 5-feet, 8-inches to 5-feet, 10-incges tall, medium build, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, gray sweatpants, dark sneakers Suspect No. 3: Black male, 20 years-of-age, 6-feet tall, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, dark sweatpants with a white stripe on side, dark baseball cap. He carried the safe.

MIAMI - A Florida-based crime ring that stole at least $80 million worth of prescription drugs, including one of the nation's biggest heists in Connecticut in 2010, has been broken up following a three-year undercover FBI probe, federal authorities said Thursday. Eleven people were charged in an 18-count indictment returned in Miami, with others charged in locations where thefts occurred including Connecticut and New Jersey, U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer said. The thieves hit warehouses and stole tractor-trailers around the country, often from highway rest stops, and brought the drugs to South Florida in an attempt to sell them.

A shoot-out during an attempted convenience store robbery in North Philadelphia on Sunday night left one of the suspects dead on the street and the store owner in critical condition at Temple University Hospital. At around 8 p.m., according to a Philadelphia Police report, four males entered La Familia Latina, a mini-mart at Westmoreland and N. Fifth Streets, attempting to rob it. A robber about 26 years old, according to police, shot the male store owner once in the right side of the stomach.

A man wanted for a Main Line bank robbery has been arrested after a standoff with police in Virginia, officials said Friday. Michael Francis Hamilton was hospitalized for an overdose after surrendering to police in Fredericksburg, according to the Free Lance-Star newspaper. Hamilton, 25, had been sought in the robbery Tuesday of the Sovereign Bank on Aldwyn Lane in Radnor Township. Radnor police confirmed that Hamilton, a native of West Norriton Township, had been arrested in Fredericksburg after a standoff with police at a motel.

EVEN AS HER husband lay dying and her own body was riddled with 14 bullets, Sherrell Rhine-Paul could think of just one thing. "She was crawling on the ground towards her children's room to protect them," police said, according to court documents. Rhine-Paul, 39, and her husband, John Paul Jr., 35, were shot during an invasion of their Strawberry Mansion home on March 5. Paul was killed but his wife miraculously survived. Their two children, ages 6 and 13, were unharmed. Police said they could see no motive for the brutality and wondered if the two invaders might have gotten the wrong address.

A man brandishing a fake beard and a silver handgun robbed a Citizens Bank in Whitpain Township on Sunday, police said. Township police gave few details of the heist, which they said took place at 11:05 a.m. at a branch at 48 Skippack Pike. Police were asking for help in identifying the man, who they said was white, stood 6 feet tall, and weighed about 180 pounds. He was wearing a fake reddish-blond wig and sunglasses. Anyone with information should call 610-279-9033. - Tom Infield

Robber being sought in Chestnut Hill bank heist * Evergreen and Germantown avenues Cops and the FBI are looking for help to track down a man who they say robbed a Chestnut Hill bank late yesterday morning and got away with an undisclosed amount of cash. Police said the man gave a teller a threatening demand note about 11:30 a.m. at National Penn Bank. After getting the money, the man fled east on Evergreen Avenue toward Ardleigh Street. Authorities said he was black, in his late 20s or early 30s, 5 feet 7 with a dark complexion.

A 28-year-old Fishtown man has been charged with two bank robberies in Northeast Philadelphia, police said Tuesday. Brandon Shields was arrested Monday at an apartment complex in Wynnewood by members of the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force and Lower Merion police. Shields, of the 1100 block of East Eyre Street, allegedly robbed a PNC Bank at 6855 Frankford Ave. on Dec. 7 and a Citizens Bank at 6537 Castor Ave. on Jan. 6. - Robert Moran

Man shot during heist * Bodine Street near Fairmount Avenue, Northern Liberties A 29-year-old man was shot and critically wounded during an apparent robbery early yesterday in Northern Liberties, police said. The victim left his home on Bodine Street just above Fairmount Avenue about 10 p.m., according to police, and told his roommate he was headed to a bar to watch a football game. When he arrived back home at 2:46 a.m., police said, a man with a handgun accosted him on the street and shot him once in the neck.