L&I employee charged in home invasion

Here's a story that slipped through the cracks yesterday, but will undoubtedly get people talking today:

Imagine this: a pair of career criminals - one who has a nice city job, another who used to - decide to pull an armed home invasion.

Even better, they have a cover - they'll tell their bound, terrified victims not to worry because they're actually narcotics cops.

Think this sounds like a hare-brained scheme from an Elmore Leonard novel? Think again.

Police said a Department of Licenses & Inspections employee and a former member of the Mayor's Office of Community Services were arrested yesterday after they pulled off this precise plan in West Mount Airy.

The saga started in a hallway between two apartments on West Mount Pleasant Avenue near Lincoln Drive about 10:30 a.m., when the two armed thugs encountered one of the apartment dwellers, a 53-year-old man.

Police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore said the crooks forced him inside his apartment, bound his hands and legs with wire ties, stuffed a rag in his mouth and wrapped a towel around his face before leaving him in his apartment, unharmed.

The two men forced their way into a second apartment and found two women, ages 31 and 38. Vanore said the intruders tied up the women and ransacked the apartment for cash and jewelry.

A plot twist developed around this time, as the first victim managed to free himself and call 9-1-1.

Read the rest here.