Could the tattered economy really be causing people to turn to robbing bans? Maybe. Maybe not. But what I learned from the FBI earlier this week is worth considering nontheless: 29 banks were robbed in 28 days this month. In three instances, thieves who were captured by the FBI had no criminal pasts. Those men told investigators they were robbing the banks because they had been laid off and needed to pay their gas and electric bills:

Times are tough - this we already know.

Millions of people are out of work, and millions more are inching dangerously close to the edge of the cliff as they juggle dwindling finances and mounting debt.

So some figure, why not rob a bank?

FBI officials say they've noticed an alarming rise in the number of local bank robberies - some committed by thieves who just want to pay their bills.

Since the start of the year, 29 banks have been robbed in eastern Pennsylvania and three counties in New Jersey, a 30 percent increase over last year, the FBI said. Twelve banks have been held up in Philadelphia alone.

Some of the suspects appear to be tried-and-true street thugs and drug addicts who flash a gun or a threatening note to get a quick score.

Others, though, have clean backgrounds and motives that might resonate with average folks.

"For the past couple of years, most of the note-job bandits were pathetic drug addicts. Now, we're just seeing guys who lost their jobs and need to pay their bills," said Special Agent Bastian Freund, a bank robbery coordinator for the FBI's Philadelphia Division.

Freund said three '09 bank robbery suspects who have been arrested by FBI agents confessed to pulling the heists because they "couldn't find work and had families to support. That doesn't make it right, but it's a different type of person than we're used to seeing."

Read the rest here.

To see a gallery of recent robberies, click here.

A suspect is being treated for a gunshot wound to the leg after being shot by a police officer last night in West Philly, police said. About 9p.m. a 19th District cop pulled over a vehicle for a traffic violation, on

56th Street

near

Girard Avenue

, police said. Moments later, the driver of the vehicle exited the car and fled on foot down

Girard Avenue

.

The cop chased him into an alley on Stiles Street, where police say the suspect pulled out a handgun and pointed it at the officer. The officer shot one round at the suspect striking him in the leg, police said. The cop was not injured. The suspect, who hasn't been identified, was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania , where he’s listed in stable condition. Internal Affairs is investigating.

Stay tuned for more information on this developing story.

Detectives kept plenty busy last year investigating a crook who broke into neighborhood stores in North Philly, South Philly and Germantown, and used a blow torch to bust open ATM machines inside the shops. Police said they finally got their man on Jan. 16, when Robert Barber, 24, was arrested and charged with committing seven of the burglaries. The following day, Barber, of 29th Street near Master, was back on the streets the next day. Police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore said Barber needed only to post $1,000 bail -- even though he stole thousands of dollars in cash, lotto cards and cigarettes during his crime spree.

 

Another chapter will be added today to the maddening urban whodunit tale, “Who shot Dwight Dixon?”
Dixon, who contends he was shot in the hand in North Philadelphia last April 29 by National Football League star Marvin Harrison, will be in municipal court to face charges that he lied to police when he first spoke about the incident.
Earlier this month, District Attorney Lynne Abraham announced she would not file criminal charges against Harrison because she couldn’t vouch for the credibility of statements made by Harrison, Dixon and three other witnesses.
In an interview yesterday with the Daily News, Dixon and his two attorneys tried to set the record straight about his initial statement to police, and all three said they believed that Harrison, a wide receiver for the Indianapolis Colts, had gotten a break because of his celebrity status.
“I didn’t run down the street with two guns shooting at people,” said Dixon, 33.
“I’m getting prosecuted for lying, but he [Harrison] is not getting prosecuted for what he did. Where’s the justice in that?”
Dixon agreed that the tension between him and Harrison, 36, had started two weeks before the shooting when they had a dispute at Harrison’s bar, Playmakers, at 28th and Cambridge streets.
The two locked horns again on April 29 in front of a hot-dog stand, down the street from a garage Harrison owns on Thompson Street near 25th.
“He swung at me, hit me across the shoulder,” Dixon said. “Next thing I know it was three-on-one. I was fighting Marvin and two other guys.”
When the fistfight ended, Dixon said, Harrison pulled out two handguns. “I said, ‘Oh, so now you a gangster?’ Then he started shooting.”
Dixon said Harrison chased after his truck and started blasting away. “I thought I was going to die. Bullets were flying all over,” he said.
Harrison’s agent, Tom Condon, did not return calls from the Daily News.
Defense attorney Joseph Santaguida said Dixon had called him from Lakenau Hospital. He advised Dixon against making any statement.
After being held by police for several days, Dixon told investigators that he had been shot in West Philadelphia by two robbers.
“I made that up because I was scared for my life and for my family. I was worried. He [Harrison] is well-connected, he has money and he has fame,” Dixon said.
Several weeks later, Dixon told members of the District Attorney’s office that Harrison shot him, Santaguida said.
Harrison, meanwhile, told police he fought with Dixon on the day of the shooting but claimed he had heard shots being fired after Dixon left.
Harrison also told police that his Belgian-made handgun was in his suburban home the day of the shooting, and claimed he had never fired the weapon.
But detectives found the gun in Harrison’s North Philadelphia garage a day after the shooting, and crime-scene investigators recovered at least five slugs at the crime scene that were later proved to have been fired from Harrison’s unique gun.
“You’d be foolish not to think that he [Harrison] wasn’t being given a break because of his status,” Santaguida said.
Cathie Abookire, Abraham’s spokeswoman, said that “every case is evaluated according to the facts and evidence and our ability to prove the case in court.”
In October, Dixon and attorney Robert Gamburg announced they were filing a civil lawsuit against Harrison. But little was said about the status of the criminal investigation.
Santaguida and Gamburg said they were stunned by Abraham’s decision to not file charges against Harrison while still pursuing Dixon.
Santaguida said: “When did he become the bad guy?”

Police earlier tonight released a surveillance image of a gun-toting man who robbed a North Philly Metro PCS shop with an accomplice on Jan. 20. The thieves -- described as a medium built, 22- to 22-year-old black man with a beard and mustache and 5-foot-9, 21-year-old black man with a black leather jacket -- walked into the store, on 22nd Street near Somerset, at about 5:45 p.m. and started asking about a particular phone, police said.

When an employee gathered paperwork about the phone, the older of the two crooks pulled out a black handgun and ordered the employee to empty out the cash register. Both men fled on foot. Tipsters can call Northwest Detectives at 215-686-3353.

A Philadelphia police officer was hospitalized with a hip injury last night after a driver trying to flee other cops pinned him against his police cruiser. Chief Inspector Scott Small said three other officers opened fire on the fleeing vehicle. The driver jumped out while his car was still moving and tried to escape on foot.

He was quickly apprehended by cops while his car, a light blue Ford Taurus, plowed into a concrete barrier.

Small said the car was pulled over shortly after 8 p.m. on

26th Street

near Wilder in South Philadelphia and as an officer was trying to get the driver to produce identification cards, the driver jammed the vehicle in reverse and sped backwards. Another officer who had arrived as backup was pinned by the rear passenger side of the car against his patrol car and suffered hip and possible internal injuries. He was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and is listed in stable condition. The suspect, identified only as a 46-year-old man, was taken to the South Detective Division. Small said five shots were fired. Some of the windows of the Taurus were shattered but no one was hit.

In other news, a 9-year-old boy and a 15-year-old are hospitalized after being shot in South Philly last night, police said. The shooting occurred shortly before 6 p.m. on

7^th Street

near Tasker. The younger victim, who is listed in critical but stable condition, was shot once in the chest and leg; the teen was struck in the hip and is in stable condition. Both are being treated at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia . Police reported no motive or suspects.

 

Police issued an arrest warrant today for Troy Townshend, 26, in connection with a daytime shooting in Northeast Philadelphia last Friday.

Investigators said Townshend, of Mountain Street near 18th in South Philadelphia, blasted away with a semi-automatic handgun at about 3 p.m. and wounded a 23-year-old man several times in the torso on Granite Street near Frankford Avenue in East Frankford. Townshend fled, and the incident then took a few bizarre twists.

The gunshot victim tried to carjack an 80-year-old man -- and succeeded, sort of. The elderly man got tangled in the seat belt and was dragged down the street until the gunshot victim crashed into another vehicle, investigators said. The shooting victim, who police have not identified, is currently in stable condition at Frankford-Torresdale Hospital. The elderly man treated at Temple University Hospital and released.

Anyone with information on Townshend's whereabouts is asked to contact Northeast Detectives at 215-686-3153 or -3154.

Join me for a few minutes as we review (mostly) all that was in crime on Friday.

Cops had their hands full in East Frankford, where a 23-year-old man was shot several times on Granite Street near Frankford Avenue shortly before 3 p.m. and then decided to try and carjack an 80-year-old man. The carjacking attempt was short-lived. Police said the elderly driver got tangled in a seat belt and was dragged for about a block, until the gunshot victim crashed into another car. The gunshot victim, whose name was not released, was listed in critical condition at Frankford-Torresdale Hospital. The elderly driver was taken to Temple University Hospital, but his condition was not known.

 

An hour earlier, Schuylkill Township police arrested a New York man who stole a cash-filled jar from a Phoenixville gas station. A tip led investigators to Pedro Martinez, 29, who was hiding out in a Phoenixville apartment.  Police said Martinez stole a jar that contained about $50 on Jan. 4 from Rimbaugh’s Exxon gas station on Route 23 near White Horse Road. Martinez was charged with theft and related offenses. The money was intended for Rides for Kids, which raises funds for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation. The jar was left in the station by Daily News photographer Steve Falk, who raises money the charity every year. “I’m elated they caught this guy,” Falk said. “Anyone who steals from sick children belongs in jail.”

And then, of course, a “big time” cockfighting ring was busted in Feltonville. Philadelphia police and Pennsylvania SPCA workers raided a home on Louden Street near 2^nd shortly before 10 p.m. and found at least 50 roosters and plenty of cash, said PSPCA investigator George Bengal. Between 13 and 18 people were arrested in the raid, which was prompted by a neighborhood tip, Bengal said.  

 

 

 

For much of the past three years, at least seven people with mental-health problems called a dirty, three-story West Philadelphia rowhouse “home.”
The property -- the Parks Personal Care Home on 59th Street near Master -- was supposed to provide comfort, medicine and round-the-clock care.
Instead, the residents were faced with little supervision, squalid living conditions and the added insult of having owner Sakina Parks allegedly withhold their Social Security money, according to the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania.
This week, the allegedly mistreated tenants caught a break.
On Thursday, the Court of Common Pleas issued an order to shut down the home and prevent Parks — who does not have a current license to operate a personal-care facility — from running any other properties in the state.
Five of the seven residents were moved yesterday to other local mental-health facilities, said Lisa Faulkner, who heads We C.A.R.E., an advocacy project run by the Mental Health Association. A legal loophole allowed two residents to continue living in Parks’ property.
“Certainly, the situation they’re in now is 100 percent better than where they were,” said Faulkner, who investigated complaints about Parks’ West Philly property for the past three years.
Faulkner said tempers ran high yesterday morning when she arrived at the house along with police, firefighters and members of the Department of Public Welfare.
“It was very, very chaotic,” Faulkner said. “She [Parks] was screaming in people’s faces. The main thing is, we got them out of there.”
The residents had been referred to Parks’ personal-care home from a variety of sources — hospitals, other mental-health agencies, even the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Parks operated as a representative payee, meaning the state deposited the residents’ Social Security checks into an account, and Parks was then supposed to distribute the funds to them, Faulkner said.
“She wasn’t giving them their money,” Faulkner said. “One resident told me she made him do chores to get his money.”
Parks could not be reached for comment last night.
Fire Department officials determined the house had heat and working smoke alarms. “But that was about it,” Faulkner said.
“It’s not a small house, but it’s not very clean. I’ve seen other personal-care homes that were not palaces, but the people loved it because they were treated with dignity. That was not the case here.”
Some residents complained of not being fed breakfast, while others noted that they were forced to sit on a couch under a picture of a doghouse if they misbehaved, Faulkner said.
“These are people with mental-health diagnoses who need help with daily living,” Faulkner said.
In court, the Department of Public Welfare reported that Parks hadn’t had an updated license to operate a roominghouse or a personal-care facility since 2003, the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania noted in a press release.