Two different community outreach buildings were burglarized this week in Atlantic County and police are trying to figure out if the crimes are connected.
On May 16, Egg Harbor Township Officers responded to an alarm at the Police Athletic League (PAL) "Ready to Ride" building on Ridge Avenue. When police arrived, they found the offices had been broken in to and ransacked, with several hundred dollars in damage done to the building. Surveillance video showed suspects involved.
The following day, the Community Food Bank on the Black Horse Pike was also burglarized. A man was caught on surveillance using a cinder block to enter and steal money from the donation bin.
Police are asking anyone with information regarding either of the burglaries to contact Egg Harbor Township Police Department Criminal Investigation Division at 609-926-4051 or Atlantic County Crime Stoppers at 609-652-1234.
Firefighters in Camden battled a 3-alarm blaze for hours thursday night before getting a handle on it.
A firefighter was injured and taken to Cooper Hospital suffering minor burns.
One man jumped from a second floor window and two others escaped with minor injuries.
The fire broke out in a vacant home near the intersection of 26th and Cramer Streets just before 6 p.m., reached 3 alarms and continued to burn for nearly five hours.
No word on the cause of the fire.
Think before you drink -- the water. Or better yet, know the contamination numbers if you’ve worked at the old Willow Grove Naval Air Station or live nearby.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued new guidelines Thursday for toxic chemicals in drinking water. The new information is significant for people in communities near Willow Grove as well as former Naval Air Station Warminster and Air National Guard Horsham where groundwater and well water were contaminated by two key chemicals found in the firefighting foam used on the bases -- perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS).
Reporter Kyle Bagenstose explains the new contamination levels, history and impact of the EPA’s “long-awaited update to its drinking water advisories” in a Bucks County Courier Times article:
Up until Thursday, the military had been gauging its response using short-term, provisional health advisories for the chemicals set by the EPA in 2009: 0.4 parts per billion for PFOA in drinking water, and 0.2 ppb for PFOS.
Thursday’s announcement, however, set an advised limit of 0.07 ppb for PFOS and PFOA combined, in order to protect against health effects from a lifetime of exposure. In a worst case scenario, that means drinking water with 0.58 ppb of the chemicals (0.39 ppb PFOA and 0.19 ppb PFOS), a level that was previously considered safe, now would measure more than eight times the recommended limit.
The EPA said it’s safety guidelines changed because science has evolved since its last advisory in 2009.
Within hours of the EPA advisory, the government expanded its free bottled water program to people whose wells now have toxic levels of PFOA and PFOS under the new guidelines. Residents with confirmed contamination levels in Horsham, Warrington and Warminster are allocated two cases of water a day (pickup info below).
Contamination is not a new issue at Willow Grove, now called Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Willow Grove or NASJRB Willow Grove. For at least 20 years some people who worked on the base -- and their family members -- have suspected their cancers were connected to the same contaminants but no direct link has been admitted or proven.
The base was shuttered in 2011 and the Pennsylvania Air National Guard took over the facility. Since 2014, bottled water has been brought in for the handful of people who still work on the base in security and administrative positions.
In recent years, cancer survivors and family members of Willow Grove workers -- enlisted and civilian -- who died from cancers, organized on Facebook and began sharing information. Members of that group are expected at next week's open house informational sessions hosted by the Horsham Land Redevelopment Authority (HLRA) to address contamination concerns. The HLRA has developed a plan to revitalize the Superfund site with residential, retail, parks, housing for the homeless and even a school.
Meanwhile, residents near the three military properties whose drinking water has confirmed levels of PFOA and PFOS can get their bottled water at the Horsham Community Center located at 1025 Horsham Road. Friday hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
State Senator Stewart J. Greenleaf applauded the bottled water effort as symbolic, but not a solution.
“The federal government has a particular responsibility here because the base is where we believe the contamination occurred,” said Greenleaf who added he was committed to the idea of evaluating the health consequences exposure for people both on and off the base.
“We have to take whatever steps are necessary to protect the people in these communities,” said Greenleaf.
The senator welcomed people to contact his office by emailing him directly sgreenleaf@pasen.gov or by reaching out to his Chief of Staff, Kevin Andrews: kandrews@pasen.gov.
The world's largest high school rowing competition returns to the banks and water of the Schuylkill River this weekend and that means a major thoroughfare will be closed to motorists as thousands flock to the Stotesbury Cup Regatta.
The Kelly Drive through Fairmount Park is the major closure for the 2016 Stotesbury Cup Regatta Friday and Saturday.
A 1-1/2 mile stretch of Kelly Drive was closed Thursday morning and will remain closed between Strawberry Mansion and Fountain Green drives until 8 p.m. Saturday.
Entrance to the regatta zone is by permit only so all other traffic will be detoured onto other routes including Strawberry Mansion, Fountain Green and Reservoir drives.
Expect potential delays on other Schuylkill River arteries like the Schuylkill Expressway (I-76), which backed up Thursday evening, and the Martin Luther King Drive the next few days.
Click here to track the latest traffic on NBC10.com.
The 90th Annual Stotesbury Cup brings teenage rowers from around the country to Philly.
Want to see "The Boss" rock the Phillies ballpark?
Tickets to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's Wednesday, Sept. 7 concert at Citizens Bank Park went on sale Friday at 10 a.m. for $100 to $150 and quickly got close to selling out causing organizers to announce a second show at the ballpark on Friday, Sept. 9.
The two-night stop is the part of the rock and roll legends' "The River Tour" honoring the iconic 1980 album.
Springsteen sells out every time he plays Philly so be sure to grab your tickets as soon as possible. There is a four-ticket limit for field seats and an eight-ticket limit for ballpark seating and by midday Friday only a handful of tickets at lower quantities appeared to still be available.
Tickets to the Friday show go on sale Wednesday at 10 a.m., said organizers.
The head librarian at the New Jersey Institute of Technology was struck and killed by a car while walking to work Thursday morning, authorities said.
Richard Sweeney, 70, of Metuchen, was hit by an Nissan Altima at about 7:45 a.m. as he crossed a street at the NJIT campus in Newark, said acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray.
Sweeney died from his injuries at 10:45 a.m. at University Hospital.
No charges have been filed against the driver who remained at the scene after the accident, Murray said.
Sweeney had been University Librarian at NJIT since 1995, when he left Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, where he directed the library for 11 years.
The university issued a statement expressing "deep sadness" about Sweeney's death. A grief counselor will be available Friday on campus, administrators said.
A New Jersey woman was arrested after she allegedly threw her boyfriend's dog out the window after a fight, police say.
Hoboken police say 38-year-old Jasmine Briggs got into an argument with her boyfriend in their apartment on Marshall Drive Wednesday night, and the man left the apartment to avoid escalating the fight.
That's when Briggs allegedly dropped his white pit bull off the second-story apartment window, police said. The man rushed to his dog and held it outside the home until police arrived.
Briggs was arrested on a charge of fourth-degree animal cruelty and released on bail, according to police. It wasn't immediately clear if she had an attorney who could comment.
In an exclusive I-Team report earlier this month, the New Jersey SPCA granted rare access to officers on the job, who said animals are often used as pawns in domestic disputes. One officer told the I-Team that domestic violence cases often begin with the abuse of an animal.
Chasing unwanted spirits away from a New Jersey woman apparently couldn't be accomplished for $41,000, so when the psychic asked for an additional $90,000 to do the job, her customer balked, police said Thursday.
Paramus detectives are treating it as a scam and say it all began with a $100 crystal ball reading.
Holly Stanley, 25, who operates as a psychic out of a Paramus office, told the 30-year-old woman who sought her advice that the crystal ball revealed that spirits were interfering with her life, detectives said.
The woman paid $5,000 for removal of the spirits in March, they said.
After several more sessions, Stanley apparently told the woman that the spirits were "rather stubborn" and it would take another $36,000 to get rid of them. The woman paid, detectives said.
Last month, Stanley told the woman that she needed still more cash to deal with the unwanted spirits. Her spirit-disposal services would run another $90,000, detectives said.
"After several days, the victim became suspicious of Ms. Stanley and reported this to the Paramus Police Department," said Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg.
Officers arrested Stanley, an East Rutherford resident, and charged her with theft by deception. She was released on $5,000 bail.
Stanley told NBC 4 New York Thursday evening the exchange of cash was a loan.
"This was friendship," she said. "I have a written contract in ink for a loan."
When asked to elaborate, she said: "I'd like all of this nonsense to stop."
Then she hung up the phone.
Police in Delaware County arrested a student from Penn Wood Middle School in Darby after finding a gun in the student's locker
.Officials conducted a locker search after rumors circulated related to a fight outside of the school, said Upper Darby Police.
The NBC10 Digital Team was honored Friday as Philadelphia City Council takes on the heroin epidemic.
Reporters Morgan Zalot Vince Lattanzio and Denise Nakano were recognized for their work on NBC10.com's Generation Addicted, an investigation into the tragic world of heroin and opioid addiction in Philadelphia and beyond.
City Council also declared 2016 as "The Year to Combat the Heroin Abuse Epidemic in Philadelphia." And, the NBC10.com Team received a formal thanks for peeling off the layer on drug addiction.
The team also testified about their findings and shared some of the NBC10 special.
The program included heart-wrenching stories about people struggling with the disease of addiction. The show also featured parents who lost children to the epidemic and law enforcement agents scrambling to implement new strategies to save lives.
EXPLORE: NBC10's Generation Addicted expanded experience online.
A program that helps kids get off the couch and start moving comes back to the area this summer.
Kids Bowl Free provides two free games of bowling every day at more than 1,200 participating bowling centers across America. Over two dozen alleys in Pennsylvania and New Jersey are getting in on the action this year, along with three centers in Delaware. Four of the centers are located in Philadelphia -- Erie Lanes, South Bowl, and two Thunderbird Lanes located on Castor Avenue and Holme Avenue.
The program is designed to give back to local communities and provide a safe and fun way for kids to spend their summer.
All kids are welcome to come try out the sport, but age restrictions vary from alley to alley. Kids at heart are always welcome to hit some pins, though there is still a cost.
You can visit the Kids Bowl Free website for more information and to locate a participating center.
More than 10,000 homes were sold in Montgomery County last year, the highest calendar year total in seven years, county officials said this week.
The median sales price for the 10,489 homes sold "showed only a modest growth," up $450 from 2014 to $270,350, but the increase was the fourth since the Great Recession of 2008.
The median price for new construction housing stock was $392,833 -- an increase of 0.9 percent.
The median price for single-family detached homes in the county increased to $450,356, an increase of just 0.7 percent. They were outpaced by single-family attached homes -- condominiums and town homes -- which rose 9 percent to $350,708.
"New town home projects are being built at increasingly higher price points as the market draws potential buyers who cannot afford new single-family detached housing," the county said in a release.
To see the full report, which includes town-by-town breakdowns, click here.
