Police are searching for thieves who they say stole thousands of dollars’ worth of landscaping equipment within the past year.

Police say of the nearly 300 burglary cases in Vineland, New Jersey this year, more than a third of them have involved landscaping equipment swiped from garages and sheds. They believe drug addicts are likely responsible for the thefts.

“It’s very frustrating because it just keeps happening,” said Vineland Police Detective Luis Rodriguez.

The latest victim of the thefts, Diane Velez, told NBC10 more than $3,000 worth of tools, including a compressor, power-washer and leaf blowers, was stolen from her garage outside her Vineland home overnight after someone broke her lock.

“We just feel violated and I’m a little scared now,” Velez said. “I wish they can do whatever they can do to stop this kind of stuff. This is our stuff. We bought it. We worked hard for it. We use it all the time and now we don’t have it.”

Investigators say they’ve made a handful of arrests in the burglaries but the crimes have continued despite that. They’re now reaching out to the public and asking for help.

“Try and find out who’s out there buying this equipment, who’s selling this equipment,” Detective Rodriguez said. “Just to try something different. If we can find out who what person is, we can stop that supply and demand.”

Police are asking the public to be on the lookout for anyone who has a large amount of landscaping equipment or anyone who is trying to sell equipment at prices that seem too good to be true. They also believe the thieves are operating beyond Vineland and Cumberland County.

“It’s not a localized issue,” Detective Rodriguez said. “It’s crossing multiple jurisdictions. It could be Gloucester, Camden. It’s all over.”

Police say it’s important to keep a detailed list of your equipment, including the manufacturer, model and serial number, to make it easier to return if it’s ever stolen and recovered.

If you have any information on the thefts, please call Vineland Police.  

A man and a woman were found dead inside a Ventnor, New Jersey home Wednesday.

Police responded to a home on North Oxford Avenue in Ventnor at 1:31 p.m. in response to a call to check the wellbeing of the residents inside. When they arrived they found a man and woman who were both suffering from gunshot wounds. They were pronounced dead at the scene.

Police have not yet revealed the identities of the victims or what led to their deaths.

“Preliminary investigation indicates that there is no continuing threat to the public stemming from this incident,” said Acting Atlantic County Prosecutor Diane Ruberton.

If you have any information on the incident, please call the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit at 609-909-7666, or the Ventnor City Police Department at 609-822-2101.

An Allentown man was arrested after allegedly marrying a second woman while still being married to his first wife. 

Arturo Roberto Reid, 65, of Allentown, Pennsylvania and Brooklyn, New York, is charged with bigamy.

On June 13, 2016, Reid’s first wife, who resides in Brooklyn, called the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office and reported her husband had married another woman in Lehigh County, according to investigators. Reid’s first wife found a receipt, dated in February, 2015, from the Lehigh County Marriage License Bureau which showed Reid was listed as “Payor” on the application to marry the Lehigh County woman, officials said.

The report prompted an investigation from a Lehigh County detective. The detective interviewed Reid’s first wife as well as court officials in Lehigh County and Kings County, New York. The detective determined Reid and the Lehigh County woman had applied for an application to marry and received a certificate for a marriage performed by a magisterial district judge on March 13, 2015 in Lehigh County. The detective also determined Reid and his first wife were married in New York in November 26, 2004 and have not been divorced. 

Reid was arraigned Wednesday. His bail was set at $2500 unsecured. He was released on his own recognizance.

An Atlantic City police officer who was wounded in a shooting is expected to be released from the hospital.

Officer Josh Vadell's condition has been upgraded and he is expected to be released from AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center, possibly as early as Thursday, and will be transferred to a rehabilitation center.

Officer Vadell, 29, was shot back on September 3 after he responded to a robbery in progress at a casino garage.

Atlantic City prosecutors say Vadell, a nine-year veteran of the police force, and another officer saw the robbery being committed.

Vadell was shot as he exited his vehicle. But the second officer returned fire and struck a robbery suspect, Jerome Damon, who later was found dead a short distance away. Damon, 25, was from Camden.

Vadell's condition was upgraded Monday from critical to stable.

He underwent surgery after the early Saturday shooting. Police initially said he suffered a bullet to the head.

Martell Chisholm, of Millville, and Demetrius Cross, of Bridgeton were both arrested in connection to the shooting. A judge maintained bail at $750,000 each for both men. Neither man entered a plea at the hearing.

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Vadell's wife, Laura Vadell, and his family issued a statement thanking "everyone who played a role in helping us through this extremely difficult time," including her husband's colleagues and the doctors, nurses and other staffers at the hospital where he's being treated.

The statement also cites the efforts of the officer who was with Vadell when the shooting occurred.

"Without him, Josh may not have made it and those responsible may never have been brought to justice," it said.

It was late August when a small black and white terrier was found along the side of the road and brought into the Bucks County SPCA in Quakertown as a stray. Turns out, this 4-year-old pup named Fancy had quite a story to tell, if only she could talk. 

Four months earlier, her beloved owner, a father of 8 and retired command sergeant in the U.S. Army who had survived an IED explosion in Fallujah back in 1998, was again fighting for his life in a hospital in small town Alabama. Sam Jordan had undergone open heart surgery and was still critical when his wife Pat went home to tend to the animals and wash up, taking a break from her vigil at his side. 

“I let Fancy out on the lead and Mabel, the Great Dane, and they came up missing. When I went back to get them, they weren’t there,” she said. 

Jordan told NBC10 she spent five hours looking for the dogs with neighbors before giving up to get back to her husband. The couple says they are sure someone took the dogs because the leads weren’t broken or damaged or tampered with. Fancy, the pup Sam calls his “hairy daughter,” and Mabel, the black Great Dane, were just gone. 

“I felt like I lost a child when I lost these dogs,” Sam said. “They’re companion dogs for me.” 

Pat says Fancy even alerted her when Sam suffered a stroke, likely saving his life. 

After months of searching, some good Samaritans came across one of the missing dogs 900 miles away in Pennsylvania, and the journey home was about to begin. 

Protocol for all strays brought in to the shelter is to check them for microchips. 

“I did this as they were still holding her, actually,” Vanly Pierson of the Bucks County SPCA in Quakertown said. 

Turns out the little dog had a chip and it tracked back to the Jordans in Alabama. Pierson made the call to tell them Fancy was found. 

“I just couldn’t imagine how they would have ever gotten to Pennsylvania,” Sam Jordan said.

The couple wanted to travel immediately to get their beloved dog but health issues prevented them from retracing Fancy’s journey. It took a collaboration of many organizations to help reunite her with the Jordans. 

A board member at the Bucks County SPCA, who also volunteers with PilotsNPaws, a nonprofit specializing in long-distance pet reunions, agreed to help fly Fancy part of the way. Two other pilots took the other legs of the trip to get her home. 

On September 12, Fancy was back in Sam’s lap in his wheelchair. 

“I’m humbled to say I cried like a baby,” Sam said. 

Yet while the couple reunited with Fancy, Mabel is still missing. 

“I keep praying every time the phone rings, it will be someone asking about my baby,” Sam said. 

He hopes to see Mabel again one day. 

Mabel is also microchipped. She’s a black Great Dane with white on her neck. 

The Jordans and workers at the Bucks County SPCA urge everyone to microchip their animals. It’s the best way to get them back if they somehow get away. As for Fancy, she was lying on Sam’s lap as he talked of her journey from his home in Alabama on Wednesday. Pat says Fancy won’t ever go out alone again.

The three-headed Montgomery County Board of Commissioners could come to verbal blows Thursday at their monthly meeting over a proposal by the two Democrats to increase annual vehicle registration fees by $5.

Lone Republican Joe Gale has fought the proposal for more than a month since the fee was first put on the August meeting agenda. However, the ordinance, which would raise the annual registration from $36 to $41, was pulled from the agenda before the meeting began.

The fee hasn't appeared out of the blue. Its origin comes from the state Legislature's transportation funding plan, Act 89. Montgomery County would be the 12th county in Pennsylvania to enact the fee. All revenue raised by the extra $5 would be required to go directly to county transportation projects.

Gale, who has made the fight against the fee his main cause at the moment, said Monday that for the second straight month, the Democrats gave him less than a day's notice that the ordinance would on the agenda. He said he received the agenda Wednesday afternoon, less than 24 hours before the 10 a.m. start Thursday.

He also said the fee will add to the already expensive burden of driving for Montgomery County residents.

"The Democrats already raised county property taxes by 9.87 percent and Pennsylvania already has the highest gas tax in the nation," Gale said Wednesday. "It is time to say, 'Enough is enough.'"

Commissioner Val Arkoosh, who is one of the two Democrats along with Josh Shapiro, told the Times Herald of Norristown two weeks ago that the $3.5 million raised by the new fee would go to much-needed bridge and road repairs.

“The staff recommendation was that enacting this fee would bring about $3.5 million in revenue to the county each year,” Arkoosh told the paper. “That would be a very positive impact on our ability to carry out our most primary responsibility, which it so maintain infrastructure in the county.”

The agenda for the meeting can be found here.

"The magic is not in these hands, it's not in these cards, it's in every one of us. It's in our breath, it's in our touch, it's in our words," Eagles long snapper Jon Dorenbos said on Tuesday.

The magic, however, is apparently not in your votes, because Dorenbos failed to win America's Got Talent (Season 11) on Wednesday night. Dorenbos finished in third place. Apparently less than 1% of votes separated the final three contestants. 

The football-playing magician did advance past the first hurdle and made it to the final five contestants. Singer and ukelelist Grace VanderWaal was crowned the winner and took home the $1 million cash prize and a chance to headline a show in Las Vegas.

Dorenbos performed one last card trick on Wednesday's finale with Paula Abdul -- he even made a "one steps forward, two steps back joke!" -- that was pretty darn good. The votes had already been tallied at that point though.

The long-tenured Eagles player received a ton of support all summer from the Philadelphia community, including many of his teammates in the organization, as well as from others around the NFL including Green Bay Packers' quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

It was a good run.

It's worth putting all of Dorenbos' wonderful performances all in one place.

It all started in June when Dorenbos first appeared on the show and wowed Simon Cowell and Heido Klum with an impressive card trick.

For his second act a few weeks later, Dorenbos pulled out the big cards and got the rare Golden Buzzer treatment.

He left the cards at home in late July for his third magical performance when he shattered some glass and got the fan vote.

His return in late August was the trickiest maneuver yet. You've got to see how he used the map and the judges Nick Foles-like throwing motion.

And in the finals, Dorenbos used his remarkable personal story and incredible showmanship to inspire.

It was a magical summer for the Eagles' long snapper. Let's hope his winter ends with a win though.

A New Jersey man has been arrested, accused of beating a 10-year-old dog so severely that a neighbor could hear her yelping amid loud banging sounds before the dog was found dead by her owner, police said.

The 10-year-old Bichon Frise named Booshu died Aug. 19, when her owner found her on the floor of her bathroom.

The owner told police that the suspect, 33-year-old Nicholas Piccolino, was alone with the dog in her kitchen, and an upstairs neighbor heard several loud banging sounds and a dog yelping in the kitchen below, according to the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.

Piccolino told the dog's owner shortly afterward that something was wrong with her dog, according to the prosecutor's office.

Piccolino allegedly claimed that Booshu had soiled herself in her crate and that while he was cleaning her up, he dropped her.

Booshu was taken to Red Bank Animal Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. A necropsy revealed she suffered multiple blunt force injuries to her head and body. 

It's not clear where the owner was during the alleged beating of the dog, or what her relationship to the suspect is. The prosecutor's office would only say the dog's owner and the suspect "were known to each other." 

After receiving the necropsy report Tuesday, police arrested Piccolino on charges of animal torment resulting in its death.

Piccolino was remanded to Ocean County Jail and bail was set at $35,000. Attorney information for him wasn't immediately available. 

A man came out of nowhere to bite a teenager enjoying the Budweiser Made in America Festival over Labor Day Weekend.

The bite on the 19-year-old woman’s arm broke the skin, said Philadelphia Police Thursday.

Police said the man wearing a black "True Religion" cap bit the woman as she stood in the general admission section of the festival on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway around 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 4. The two had no contact before the incident, said investigators.

Another patron took photos of the suspect as the victim received medical treatment in the concert medical tent, said police.

Investigators believe the suspect is in his 30s with long braided hair and appeared to have a crown tattoo on his chest, said police.

Investigators asked anyone who recognizes the man to contact Philadelphia Police.

A sideways scaffolding marked the scene where crews rescued two workers at a Delaware hospital building Thursday morning.

The high-angle rescue took place around 10:45 a.m. at a building on the Christiana Care Health System campus along Ogletown-Stanton Road, said New Castle County dispatchers.

Both workers needed help coming down after the scaffold malfunctioned and are expected to be OK, said Christiana Care spokesperson Hiran Ratnayake.

"... a scaffolding malfunction temporarily caused two workers to be stranded on a scaffold at Christiana Hospital until fire rescue personnel were able to safely help them down from the building," said Ratnayake's statement. "Both workers are safe and did not receive any injuries."

As SkyForce10 hovered overhead a short time after the incident, you could see a scaffolding dangling on its side from the side of the building.

It wasn’t clear how high up the workers were when they became stuck, said dispatchers.

First responders helped a Philadelphia Police officer himself onto a stretcher after a crash in the Frankford neighborhood Thursday afternoon.

The wreck at Cheltenham and Frankford avenues around 12:30 p.m. left that officer and his partner with non-life-threatening injuries, said police.

Police expected both officers to be treated at Temple University Hospital and released.

As SkyForce10 hovered overhead a short time later you could see the officer getting out of his police sport utility vehicle and onto a stretcher before being wheeled to a waiting ambulance. A second SUV -- a Toyota Rav4 -- crashed nearby.

The 15th District officers were responding to an officer assist call, driving southbound on Frankford Avenue when the Rav4 -- going eastbound on Cheltenham -- struck the police vehicle, said police.

Doctors at Frankford-Torresdale Hospital treated two people in the Rav4 for minor injuries, said police.

Police didn't immediately file any charges.

The New Jersey school bus driver seen in dramatic video swerving into the wrong lane to get ahead of a slower-moving FedEx tractor-trailer and then nearly getting rammed by the larger vehicle has been fired. 

Representatives for Jay's Bus Service, which serves schools in Ocean County, told NBC 4 New York the driver was fired Wednesday night as soon as the owner of the Lakewood-based company saw the video. 

The video, captured Wednesday afternoon on Airport Road by Stephen O'Connor and posted to Facebook, shows the bus weave around the FedEx truck, going across the median and trying to pass the truck near a traffic light. The truck, though, veers left, also going across the yellow line, and appears to try to cut off the bus, forcing the bus all the way into the opposite lane of the road. 

The yellow school bus speeds up again and cuts back into the right lane, ahead of the FedEx truck. No students were on the bus at the time the video was taken; it was either on its way to a school or another bus parking depot. 

FedEx said it takes "safety very seriously" and is looking into the matter. 

Police also said they are investigating. 

O'Connor, whose Facebook video was viewed more than 165,000 times in 20 hours, told NBC 4 New York the situation could've been disastrous. 

Montgomery County drivers will pay $5 more to register a vehicle after the county commissioners approved a new fee to pay for bridge and road work -- but not before contentious debate by the governing body.

Lone Republican Commissioner Joe Gale railed against not only the increase in the annual vehicle registration from $36 to $41, but also the way he is treated by the two Democrats who control the board’s legislative agenda.

Gale accused Democrats Josh Shapiro and Val Arkoosh, the board chair and vice-chair respectively, of setting the monthly board’s agenda before letting him know what’s on it.

“This means the agenda is finalized prior to my briefing and my input is not even being considered,” he said in a speech to open the meeting. He went on to accuse the Commissioners’ chief clerk of “total and gross insubordination” for ignoring his pleas to be included in setting the agenda.

Shapiro and Arkoosh, who adamantly defended their staff, later pointed out that county staff briefs the commissioners twice a month at “info sessions” on what will appear on upcoming agendas.

“I have worked with staffs of all caliber and types and I will tell you the senior staff here is among the most professional, highly competent group of individuals,” Arkoosh said. “I have had no trouble getting what I have needed for the last 19, 20 months.”

Shapiro and Arkoosh voted to approve the $5 fee while Gale voted against it.

The extra $5 for all 693,000 vehicles registered in Montgomery County will raise an estimated $3.25 million in 2017, county officials said. That money can only be spent by the county on transportation infrastructure, according to the 2013 state law that allowed the fee.

The commissioners said the new money would go toward reconstruction of eight county bridges that have been deemed structurally deficient. Arkoosh said the eight bridges will add to four that the county already scheduled for reconstruction in 2017. The 12 bridges next year would take a bite out of the 63 county bridges in total that are currently structurally deficient.

Several county agencies voiced their support for the $5 fee increase, including the Montgomery County Planning Commission and Montgomery County Transportation Association. Two state representatives, Democrat Tim Briggs and Republican Mike Vereb, also spoke in favor of the fee, noting that it was part of Pennsylvania’s transportation funding reform Act 89. They said its purpose was to give counties control over some of their transportation project planning.

“When you use county money, you can get through things very quickly,” county planning commission staff engineer Matt Edmond told the commissioners.

Arkoosh said the situation facing county bridges is dire.

“We cannot wait any longer for state or federal funds,” she said.

The four bridges currently scheduled for reconstruction in 2017 are: Moreland Avenue; Mayor Road; Davis Grove; and Lutheran Road.

A county spokeswoman said that, based on preliminary recommendations by county enginners, the potential list of eight bridges that the new $5 fee would fund in 2017 are: Stump Road; Waverly Road; Rostowski Road; Swamp Pike; Mill Creek Pond; Sterigere Street; Plymouth Road; and Camp Wawa Road. 

To explore the list of Montgomery County’s structurally deficient bridges, go to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s link here. To go directly to an Excel spreadsheet of all the bridges, click here.