Thieves

Medical-identity theft - the stealing of Medicare and other information from patients and doctors - is by some measures the fastest-growing form of ID theft. These sites help deal with it. Privacy advocates say not to carry your Social Security number in your wallet, but Medicare recipients are stuck with insurance ID cards that carry their SSNs. The Medicare bureaucracy is actively resisting change because of the expense of instituting a different identifying system. So, what to do?

Metal thieves have knocked out the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) units in more than a third of Camden school buildings since fall, leading district officials to wonder how they will pay for replacements. In the last year, at least 15 units in 11 locations have been destroyed by vandals who stripped them of copper and iron. District leaders are scrambling to come up with more than $750,000 for new apparatus and protective cages. The unexpected expense "can take away from things that needed to be done during the school year," district business administrator Celeste Ricketts said.

Two men were arrested after being tracked through a trail of metal they left behind while trying to steal scrap from Highland High School, police say. Officers were called to the school in Gloucester Township, Camden County, at 8 a.m. today by school workers. The workers, police say, spied men trying to take metal pieces kept under the stadium bleachers and load the scrap into carry-on luggage. The men were gone by the time officers arrived. However, police found a trail of metal leading to a fence that separates school grounds from the Highland Park development.

Philadelphia police were looking for a team of thieves who stole 15 handbags, collectively valued at $16,240, from a Center City store Thursday morning. Police said two women entered the Burberry store at 1705 Walnut St. before 10:30 a.m. and distracted an employee. Four men then ran in and grabbed the handbags, police said. All six were last seen making their getaway in a silver Ford Contour. Investigators were examining surveillance videos in an effort to identify the thieves. - Staff Report

Police are looking for a team of thieves who stole 15 handbags valued at $16,240 from a Center City store this morning. Police said the caper unfolded when two women entered the Burberry Store at 1705 Walnut Street before 10:30 a.m. and distracted an employee. While the clerk's attention was elsewhere, four men ran in grabbed the handbags, police said. All six were last seen making their getaway in a silver Ford Contour. Investigators are examining surveillance videos in an effort to identify the thieves.

The thieves had pulled a white van up to the back of the snazzy Chestnut Street restaurant Buddakan. Were they stealing cash, or the giant golden Buddha? A stash of the popular "dip sum" doughnuts? Nope. They were after the used cooking oil. With biodiesel production increasing and prices for feedstocks - including used cooking oil - soaring, a waste product that restaurants once paid to get rid of is now a commodity targeted by thieves. Greenworks Holdings, a group of companies that collect used cooking oil and convert it into biofuel, serves about 13,000 restaurants, mostly in the northeastern states.

OIL VEY! A couple of greasy thieves have been charged with stealing 150 gallons of used cooking oil from an Old City restaurant Saturday morning, according to police. At 6:08 a.m., an employee of Waste Oil Recyclers Inc. reported that someone had stolen waste oil from one of the company's containers at the rear of Buddakan on Chestnut Street near 4th, police said. Authorities were able to obtain surveillance video of the theft that showed two men backing a white Ford van up to the waste-oil container.

Police are seeking help identifying a trio of thieves who stole the identity of a 68-year-old South Philadelphia resident to open credit card accounts that allowed to make off with more than $100,000 in goods. While police do not know their names, they have pictures of the thieves and their pickup truck, thanks to surveillance cameras. And in one scene captured on video , they were accompanied by a little child who watched as the trio loaded their ill-gotten gains onto the truck, a four-door, white pickup with a ladder rack.

State law enforcement officials have broken up what they said was an international car-theft ring that operated in the Philadelphia region. Attorney General Linda Kelly and State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan announced the arrests and criminal charges against 25 people, including 15 from Philadelphia, Tuesday. "This was a focused and elaborate operation aimed at primarily high-end luxury cars and SUVs, often snatched from car-dealership lots or service departments in communities around Philadelphia," Kelly said.