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Thursday, September 24, 2009

Police looking for two who snapped subway photos

Philadelphia police are trying to identify two men who were separately spotted photographing parts of the Broad Street subway line earlier this week.
Aware that the mere mention of such activity could trigger terrorism fears, authorities were quick to note yesterday that neither incident seemed ominous.
“We don’t believe either one of these events are terrorism-related, or that there’s any connection to what’s been going on in New York,” said Homeland Security Chief Inspector Joseph Sullivan, alluding to an alleged terrorist plot there that had led to three arrests.
The first incident in the local subways occurred about 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, when a bearded white man in his 20s apparently took pictures of the underground area at the Snyder Avenue stop in South Philadelphia, Sullivan said.
SEPTA security cameras captured footage of the man, who had a backpack and a ponytail, as he left the station.
Shortly after 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, a SEPTA cashier noticed a clean-shaven “Middle Eastern” man with close-cropped hair taking pictures at the Lombard Street station, he said.
The cashier confronted the man, who proceeded to show her images of other subway facilities on his camera. He then indicated that he was deleting the pictures and left, Sullivan said.
No footage was taken of the man because the security cameras at the Lombard station were not working.
“We feel confident this is nothing to be alarmed about,” Sullivan said, “but we do implore people to call us when you see something unusual, and let us make the determination.”
Investigators frequently respond to reports of people taking photos of trains and subways. “Usually, they just turn out to be art students or train buffs,” he said.
SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams said members of the public are allowed to photograph subway stops and other portions of the transportation line and regularly do. 
These two people "were brought to our attention, so we’d just be interested in talking to them and learning a bit more about what they were doing,” she said.
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About The PhillyConfidential team

Dana DiFilippo has covered murder, mayhem and miscellany at the Daily News since 2000. She grew up in Delaware County and studied journalism and photography at Penn State University. E-mail tips to difilid@phillynews.com.

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Stephanie Farr has been reporting for the Daily News since 2007, covering everything from gay porn stars who entered the burglary business to moon trees, skinheads, murders and naked bike rides. She covers crime, both in the city and suburbs, and keeps clippings of bizarre Associated Press articles. Her favorite this year was the story about the drunk in Punxsutawney who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dead opossum. E-mail tips to farrs@phillynews.com.

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Phillip Lucas joined the Daily News crime team in 2011. He grew up on the mean streets of Seattle and studied journalism and psychology at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Before landing in the City of Brotherly Love, Phillip was a reporter for The News Journal in Wilmington, Del. Email tips to lucasp@phillynews.com.

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Morgan Zalot is the newest crime reporter at the Daily News, starting in 2011 after interning at the paper twice as a Temple University journalism student. In her past stints at the DN, she covered just about everything, from drunken Phillies fans to a barber shop in a high school to a grisly murder-suicide. She’s a born-and-raised Philly girl who grew up in the Northeast. E-mail tips to zalotm@philly.com.

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