Police are on the hunt for armed robbers who they say are responsible for a string of convenience store holdups in Camden and Burlington counties, including one that left a man in critical condition.

Investigators say the group committed at least eight armed robberies in South Jersey from December through January. Some of the robberies were committed by one man while others were committed by three, according to investigators.

Police suspect the men are responsible for armed robberies at the following locations at the following times:

12/10/13, 3:18 a.m.
7-Eleven
801 Burlington Ave., Delanco

1/10/14, 12:43 a.m.
7-Eleven
6001 Westfield Ave., Pennsauken

1/14/14, 10:30 p.m.
Sunoco
3071 Rt. 73 South, Maple Shade

1/16/14, 1:20 a.m.
7-Eleven
1155 N. Rt. 73, Mt. Laurel

1/16/14, 1:32 a.m.
7-Eleven
3163 Marne Hwy., Mt. Laurel

1/19/14, 10:06 p.m.
Country Farms
2403 Marne Hwy., Hainesport

1/21/14, 5:17 p.m.
Country Farms
Rt. 73 South, Maple Shade

1/21/14, 7:33 p.m. (attempt)
Shell Station
Rt. 130 N and Willow Dr., Cinnaminson

During the January 10 robbery at the Pennsauken 7-Eleven, police say the suspects shot a 28-year-old clerk several times after he reached for an emergency alarm button. The man was taken to Cooper Hospital where he is still in critical condition.

Police are also investigating whether the men are connected to two armed robberies that occurred at the 130 Food Mart in Delran, New Jersey on January 16 and January 26, as well as a liquor store robbery in Florence, New Jersey on Monday.

Officials with 7-Eleven are offering a $5,000 reward to anyone with information leading to the arrest of the people responsible. The Camden County Prosecutor’s Office is also offering a $2,500 reward.

Police say the suspects wore a mask during all the robberies. They have not yet released a detailed description of the suspects.

If you have any information on the robberies, please call Camden County Prosecutor’s Office Detective Vincent McCalla at (856) 225-8569 or Pennsauken Police Detective Brian Polaski at (856) 488-0080.

 

There were almost two unemployed Philadelphians per job last year, according to a new report.

City Controller Alan Butkovitz released his latest monthly economic report for Philly on Tuesday. The report reveals that in November there were around 63,800 unemployed Philadelphians in comparison to 32,934 advertised online job openings in the city. The data shows an unemployed per job opening ratio of 1.94, meaning nearly two people competed for every one job.

Officials say Philly’s ratio ranks it 22 of the 67 counties in Pennsylvania for having the least number of unemployed per job opening. Philly ranks below Delaware (2.02) and Bucks (2.27) counties but not as low as Montgomery (1.06) and Chester (1.24) counties.

In November of 2008, there were 1.44 unemployed Philadelphians competing for every job. The rate rose to 7.15 in November of 2009 however after the recession. 

Butkovitz’s latest report also revealed that the latest monthly tax revenues for the City’s General fund totaled $158 million, a 4% drop from December of 2012. Monthly sales tax collections were at $21 million, a 4% drop from the year before. However, the report also revealed that yearly collections maintained a 3% increase over last year.

Click here to view the December, 2013 economic report.
 

A father pleaded guilty to lesser charges while all charges were dropped against a mother after the two were accused of “stealing education” for their 5-year-old daughter.

In August of 2012, Hamlet and Olesia Garcia were both arrested and charged with sending their daughter to Pine Hill Elementary school in Lower Moreland Township, Montgomery County while she lived in Philadelphia.

In March of 2012, officials with the Lower Moreland Township School District received information that the Garcias’ daughter, who was attending Pine Hill, actually lived in Philadelphia. School officials said that records indicated the girl and her parents lived together at an address on Brookdale Avenue in Huntingdon Valley, Lower Moreland Township. However, the district claimed that the family actually lived on Philmont Terrace in Philadelphia. While the Philadelphia home is only about a mile away from Pine Hill Elementary, it’s still located in a different district.

Prosecutors claimed that the family had lived in their Philadelphia home since 2004 and that at no time did they ever live in Lower Moreland. Officials accused the couple of fraudulently reporting that they lived at the home of Olesia’s father in Huntingdon Valley in order to send their child to Pine Hill.

Prosecutors say the Garcia’s never paid the Lower Moreland school taxes but still obtained the same education for their daughter paid for with those taxes. According to officials, this led to a loss of $10,752.81 for the year for the Lower Moreland School District.

Officials say the loss was calculated based on the Pennsylvania Department of Education tuition rate for the Lower Moreland School District, which is $58.97 per student per day. Officials say tuition cost for the students are paid for with school taxes of those who live within the school district.

The Garcia family maintained their innocence. They claimed that their daughter lived in the Lower Moreland area for 8 months while attending Pine Hill before moving back to Philadelphia. The Garcias say they still kept their daughter enrolled in Pine Hill after the move so that she would have continued access to a good education.

The case gained national attention, bringing in supporters for the Garcias as well as advocates for families seeking better educational opportunities for their children.

“It’s been a difficult time for me and my family,” Hamlet Garcia said during a court appearance on Tuesday. “I have trust we can do the right things in this case.”

The judge gave the Garcias three options to avoid conviction and seven years in prison. They were told they could contest the discrepancy at an administrative hearing, pay back the money owed or withdraw their daughter from the district.

Hamlet ended up paying back the money owed, according to a family publicist. He was ordered to pay a $100 fine as well as $10,752.81 for one year of school tuition. All charges against Olesia were completely dropped however.

 

More than two dozen commuters were stranded for hours overnight on a Manhattan-bound NJ Transit train that lost power in a tunnel underneath the Hudson River, officials say.

Downed wires stopped the train on its tracks inside the tunnel shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday, NJ Transit says.

Twenty-seven passengers were stuck on board the Northeast Corridor train for about four hours before they could transfer to a rescue train. The train was running off a battery, officials say, so the cars were heated.

Crews were sent to the tunnel to make repairs to the downed power lines, NJ Transit says.

NJ Transit says all trains are operating on or close to schedule Wednesday morning.

Multi-vehicle accidents shut down the New Jersey Turnpike in both directions Wednesday morning.

The first accident involved a tractor-trailer, a tanker and two cars happened around 8:20 a.m. Both the tractor-trailer and tanker are overturned.

Northbound lanes of the turnpike are shut down near exit 3 in Cherry Hill. Drivers can take 295 as an alternate route.

The second accident happened about an hour after the first on the southbound lanes of the turnpike in Cherry Hill. It also involved an overturned tractor-trailer.

Southbound lanes were closed for nearly two hours. All southbound lanes are now open.

Northbound lanes are closed, but traffic is getting by on the shoulder.

No word on what caused the accidents. One person is seriously injured, others received minor injuries, according to state police.
 

As snow fell this morning, firefighters responded to a blaze at a local county prosecutor’s office.

And, local authorities believe the fire at the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office in Bridgeton, N.J. was intentionally set.

Firefighters responded to a burglar alarm at the Fayette Street office around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday. When they arrived, crews found flames coming from an office in the two-story brick building, according to Bridgeton Police Capt. Michael Gaimari.

"The fire was contained to an office that was essentially a re-converted exterior enclosed porch on the south end of the building which is also where the point of the origin of the fire was located," Gaimari said.

"The fire department responded quickly and was able to prevent the fire from spreading to the attached main structure, but that office was completely destroyed."

Police didn’t elaborate on what evidence they found to suggest arson but they did say that fire investigators believe the blaze was intentionally set.

Police told NBC10.com that there was also a fire reported overnight at a law office on W Landis Avenue in Vineland, N.J. Gaimari said they weren't sure if the fires are connected.

Anyone with information or who might have seen something is asked to contact Bridgeton Police at 856-451-0033 or by texting “Bridgeton” and their top to TIP411.

Didn't have a chance to catch up on local news yesterday?

An Overnight Snow Storm
NBC10.com users wanted to latest on the coming storm.

Backyard Homemade Hockey Rink Is Dream Come True
A hockey dad has embraced the bitter cold weather and made a dream come true for his three children.

Crews Work to Clean Up Del. River Oil Spill
Crews worked through the night to contain a crude oil spill in the Delaware River.

Man Wants It "All" But Gets Nothing From Wawa
What started as an apparent innocent attempt to buy cigarettes ended with police searching for a would-be robber who investigators say tried to empty the register at a local Wawa store.

SEPTA Passengers Stranded for 1 Hour in Cold
Passengers on a SEPTA train were left stranded in the cold for about an hour after the train broke down.

A New Jersey high school basketball coach has been reported missing by his family, and police are assisting in the search for the 30-year-old man.

Andrew Silvagni, the head girls basketball coach at Governor Livingston High School, was reported missing to the New Providence Police Department by his parents on Friday, Jan. 24.

Police told NJ.com Silvagni coached the team Thursday in Livingston and came home that evening. 

Police don't believe foul play is involved, and they're investigating a report he was last seen at his friend's home in Kenilworth Monday evening. 

He's believed to be driving a black 2014 Honda CR-V with a New Jersey license plate number X31DUW. 

Anyone with information is asked to contact New Providence police. 

A woman whose responsibility as a 911 operator is to alert police to a crime is accused of alerting one of the suspects instead.

Wilmington, Del. 911 operator Alleshia Kennedy was charged earlier this week malicious interference with emergency communication, official misconduct and hindering prosecution after her alleged actions during a shooting report earlier this month came to light.

Kennedy, 25, was working at the city’s 911 call center on Jan. 9 when an emergency call came in for reports of shots fired, according to Wilmington Police.

Police say that Kennedy communicated with a suspect that police had been called rather putting the information about the shooting into the dispatch system.

Detectives arrested Kennedy on the night of Jan. 27. They didn’t reveal how the alleged incident came to their attention.

Kennedy is barred from going to police headquarters as an internal review is carried out about her employment status, according to police.

Local art collaborative director Caryn Kunkle says she’s tired of seeing one of Philadelphia's most famous vacant properties rotting away without use. So yesterday, Kunkle started a petition on Change.org to rally supporters around the idea of turning the gutted Divine Lorraine Hotel on N. Broad and Fairmount Streets into an interactive, contemporary art museum.

“I’ve been interested in the building for many years. I just keep thinking, what amazing concepts we could put there that would really unite the city,” Kunkle said.

Kunkle, 31, has been living in the Fairmount neighborhood and advocating for creative use of the Divine Lorraine for more than three years. She believes that the Fairmount neighborhood, which she says has been plagued by violence and gentrification, could be united through the restoration and collaborative use of the building.

Specifically, Kunkle wants the city to use eminent domain to convert the space into The Philadelphia Interactive Museum of Contemporary Art (PIMOCA). Kunkle says the space could be used to showcase local, national and international art exhibitions, as well as an interactive space for local high school arts programs, and other art schools’ activities.

The Divine Lorraine building was built between 1892 and 1894, and was originally used as an apartment building until it was sold and converted into a hotel in 1900. The building is more popularly known among Philadelphians because of its use as a hub for the Universal Peace Mission Movement when it was sold to the mission’s leader, Father Divine, in 1948.

The Divine Lorraine building has remained a topic of discussion among developers and community members since it closed in 1999. It was named a historic site on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002, and was subsequently gutted of its contents in 2006. Since then, proposals to turn the building into apartments, condominiums, and retail shops have risen and eventually flopped, primarily due to exorbitant cost estimates for rehabbing the space.

Kunkle says her vision for an interactive museum that would make use of the building’s historic elements by letting them remain is the most cost effective option for the 100+ year old building.

“The Divine Lorraine, it’s just not possible to turn it into condos or retail space because of the overheads costs of renovating it. It’s just too cost inhibitive,” she said. “I’ve seen all of the business plans, and to me, it’s just not financially feasible. I think what it’s gonna take is philanthropy married with investment.”

Kunkle compared her idea to that of museums in European countries that house art in older, historic buildings, and the Eastern State Penitentiary—a 185 year-old building here in Philadelphia—which has become the site of popular guided tours and annual Halloween attractions.

The Lorraine Divine Hotel was purchased by developer Eric Blumenfeld in 2012. Blumenfeld reportedly had plans of converting the building into apartments. According to Philadelphia Office of Property Assessment records, the building was sold to its current owners, Divine Intervention Hotel, on Jan. 17 of this year for $1.5 million.

Kunkle says her idea has previously been brushed off by city and state officials, but she’s hopeful that with the support of the community, her proposal will be more seriously considered. She says she already has a meeting scheduled with representatives from Gov. Tom Corbett’s office, and she plans to host numerous roundtable discussions with community leaders in the coming weeks.

“It’s been really hard for me to get anybody's attention. Nobody seems to listen,” she said. “I’m really tired of hearing that it’s not a good idea, so I’m just gonna try this and see what happens.”

So far, 273 supporters have signed Kunkle’s petition.

Former Collingdale Councilman James Samuel Bryan was arrested by Delaware County police today for allegedly stealing nearly $3 million from his former employer.

Bryan faces multiple charges of forgery, theft, receiving stolen property and other related charges. He allegedly stole $2.9 million in funds over the course of 11 years while he was serving as a project manager for Wescott Electric in Aston, Pa.

Delaware County DA Jack Whelan held a press briefing Wednesday afternoon to formally announce the charges.

Detectives Michele Deery and Joseph Nardone began an investigation into missing money last June, after Wescott Electric owner Jim Wescott and Wescott Electric vice president Joe McColgan brought a list of Bryan's fraudulent activities to their attention.

The investigation revealed that Bryan had concocted an intricate scheme in which he would write invoices for jobs that did not exist. Bryan also allegedly created fake purchasing orders for bare copper wire that he would later sell for as much as $2,000 in profit per order.

According to the Delaware County District Attorney's Office, Bryan admitted to detectives that he used the money to gamble as frequent as three times per week at Harrah's Casino in Chester.

In a press release, Whelan called Bryan's alleged actions blatantly deceptive.

"The defendant knowingly and fraudulently stole from his employer, depositing hundreds of thousands of dollars into his personal accounts. He took advantage of his position of authority and employer’s trust, and he will be held accountable for his actions,” Whelan said.

Bryan previously served as the Vice President of the Collingdale Borough Council. He resigned from the council on Oct. 7, last year. Bryan is a registered Republican who was named as a candidate for the borough's magisterial district judge seat last year but he later removed his name from the ballot.

The Delco Times reports that Bryan has hired Philadelphia attorney Michael Diamondstein to represent him in the case.

Representatives from Wescott Electric declined to comment on the charges.