A chemical leak forced workers at a South Philly building to evacuate early Friday evening.
The leak occurred at the Ashland Chemical Company on the 2800 block of South Christopher Columbus Boulevard.
According to officials, approximately 100 gallons of a non toxic oil sprayed out of a broken pump forcing 10 employees to evacuate.
A hazmat crew was called to the scene and the pump was shut off.
No one was hurt during the incident. The street was closed in both directions near the facility.
Young black males in recent years were at a far greater risk of being shot dead by police than their white counterparts - 21 times greater, according to a ProPublica analysis of federally collected data on fatal police shootings.
The 1,217 deadly police shootings from 2010 to 2012 captured in the federal data show that blacks, age 15 to 19, were killed at a rate of 31.17 per million, while just 1.47 per million white males in that age range died at the hands of police.
One way of appreciating that stark disparity, ProPublica's analysis shows, is to calculate how many more whites over those three years would have had to have been killed for them to have been at equal risk. The number is jarring 2013 185, more than one per week.
ProPublica's risk analysis on young males killed by police certainly seems to support what has been an article of faith in the African American community for decades: Blacks are being killed at disturbing rates when set against the rest of the American population.
Our examination involved detailed accounts of more than 12,000 police homicides stretching from 1980 to 2012 contained in the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Report. The data, annually self-reported by hundreds of police departments across the country, confirms some assumptions, runs counter to others, and adds nuance to a wide range of questions about the use of deadly police force.
Colin Loftin, University at Albany professor and co-director of the Violence Research Group, said the FBI data is a minimum count of homicides by police, and that it is impossible to precisely measure what puts people at risk of homicide by police without more and better records. Still, what the data shows about the race of victims and officers, and the circumstances of killings, are "certainly relevant," Loftin said.
"No question, there are all kinds of racial disparities across our criminal justice system," he said. "This is one example."
The FBI's data has appeared in news accounts over the years, and surfaced again with the August killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. To a great degree, observers and experts lamented the limited nature of the FBI's reports. Their shortcomings are inarguable.
The data, for instance, is terribly incomplete. Vast numbers of the country's 17,000 police departments don't file fatal police shooting reports at all, and many have filed reports for some years but not others. Florida departments haven't filed reports since 1997 and New York City last reported in 2007. Information contained in the individual reports can also be flawed. Still, lots of the reporting police departments are in larger cities, and at least 1000 police departments filed a report or reports over the 33 years.
There is, then, value in what the data can show while accepting, and accounting for, its limitations. Indeed, while the absolute numbers are problematic, a comparison between white and black victims shows important trends. Our analysis included dividing the number of people of each race killed by police by the number of people of that race living in the country at the time, to produce two different rates: the risk of getting killed by police if you are white and if you are black.
David Klinger, a University of Missouri-St. Louis professor and expert on police use of deadly force, said racial disparities in the data could result from "measurement error," meaning that the unreported killings could alter ProPublica's findings.
However, he said the disparity between black and white teenage boys is so wide, "I doubt the measurement error would account for that."
ProPublica spent weeks digging into the many rich categories of information the reports hold: the race of the officers involved; the circumstances cited for the use of deadly force; the age of those killed.
Who Gets Killed?
The finding that young black men are 21 times as likely as their white peers to be killed by police is drawn from reports filed for the years 2010 to 2012, the three most recent years for which FBI numbers are available.
The black boys killed can be disturbingly young. There were 41 teens 14 years or younger reported killed by police from 1980 to 2012 ii. 27 of them were black iii; 8 were white iv; 4 were Hispanic v and 1 was Asian vi.
That's not to say officers weren't killing white people. Indeed, some 44 percent of all those killed by police across the 33 years were white.
White or black, though, those slain by police tended to be roughly the same age. The average age of blacks killed by police was 30. The average age of whites was 35.
Who is killing all those black men and boys?
Mostly white officers. But in hundreds of instances, black officers, too. Black officers account for a little more than 10 percent of all fatal police shootings. Of those they kill, though, 78 percent were black.
White officers, given their great numbers in so many of the country's police departments, are well represented in all categories of police killings. White officers killed 91 percent of the whites who died at the hands of police. And they were responsible for 68 percent of the people of color killed. Those people of color represented 46 percent of all those killed by white officers.
What were the circumstances surrounding all these fatal encounters?
There were 151 instances in which police noted that teens they had shot dead had been fleeing or resisting arrest at the time of the encounter. 67 percent of those killed in such circumstances were black. That disparity was even starker in the last couple of years: of the 15 teens shot fleeing arrest from 2010 to 2012, 14 were black.
Did police always list the circumstances of the killings? No, actually, there were many deadly shooting where the circumstances were listed as "undetermined." 77 percent of those killed in such instances were black.
Certainly, there were instances where police truly feared for their lives.
Of course, although the data show that police reported that as the cause of their actions in far greater numbers after the 1985 Supreme Court decision that said police could only justify using deadly force if the suspects posed a threat to the officer or others. From 1980 to 1984, "officer under attack" was listed as the cause for 33 percent of the deadly shootings. Twenty years later, looking at data from 2005 to 2009, "officer under attack" was cited in 62 percent xxxvii of police killings.
Does the data include cases where police killed people with something other than a standard service handgun?
Yes, and the Los Angeles Police Department stood out in its use of shotguns. Most police killings involve officers firing handguns xl. But from 1980 to 2012, 714 involved the use of a shotgun xli. The Los Angeles Police Department has a special claim on that category. It accounted for 47 cases xlii in which an officer used a shotgun. The next highest total came from the Dallas Police Department: 14 xliii.
i ProPublica calculated a statistical figure called a risk ratio by dividing the rate of black homicide victims by the rate of white victims. This ratio, commonly used in epidemiology, gives an estimate for how much more at risk black teenagers were to be killed by police officers.Risk ratios can have varying levels of precision, depending on a variety of mathematical factors. In this case, because such shootings are rare from a statistical perspective, a 95 percent confidence interval indicates that black teenagers are at between 10 and 40 times greater risk of being killed by a police officer. The calculation used 2010-2012 population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey.
xl Calculated from the "Weapon Used by Offender" variable. Ranked based on frequency of reported shotgun homicides by police agencies.
xlii https://www.propublica.org/documents/item/1307313-offweapon-lapd-spssoutput.html#document/p1/a179467
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The Keystone State's wealthiest woman -- worth $3.2 billion -- spends her days breeding horses at a Chester County farm.
Mary Alice Dorrance Malone, of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, is the granddaughter of the inventor of the condensed soup formula -- the billion dollar idea that reshaped Campbell Soup Co. -- making her the company's largest shareholder and richest woman in Pennsylvania, according to rankings by Movoto, a real estate blog.
Another Pennsylvania woman, Susan Hirt Hage, of Erie, also made Movoto's list of top female earners in the Northeast. Hage is worth $2 billion, the rankings show.
She was the first woman to join the board of Erie Indemnity, a Pennsylvania-based insurance company that her father H.O. Hirt founded in 1925, according to Forbes.com.
But the Pennsylvania women's wealth pales in comparison to the country's top female earners, which include heiresses to the Wal-Mart fortune.
Christy Walton, of Wyoming, is worth an estimated $37.6 billion, while her sister-in-law, Alice Walton, is worth an estimated $33.5 billion, according to the rankings.
To see the full list of women, visit the Movoto Real Estate website.
A raccoon that was removed from a yard in Gloucester Township, New Jersey tested positive for rabies, according to officials.
The raccoon was spotted by a family’s dog acting erratically Tuesday afternoon in Gloucester Township. An animal control officer captured the animal and submitted it to the New Jersey Public Health & Environmental Laboratories (PHEL) in Trenton. After conducting tests, officials determined the raccoon was rabid.
The dog who spotted the rabid raccoon is up to date with its rabies vaccinations and received a rabies booster from its veterinarian, according to officials. Despite this, due to state regulations, the dog will be confined and observed for 45 days from the date of the incident.
“Although rabies is a serious illness, it can be prevented by early treatment,” said Freeholder Carmen Rodriguez, liaison to the Camden County Health Department. “If you have been bitten or scratched by a wild animal it is important that you seek immediate medical attention.”
Officials released the following tips for pet owners or those who’ve encountered a wild animal:
You can learn more about rabies by visiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. You can also call the Camden County Department of Health and Human Services at (856) 374-6370.
Police are on the hunt for at least two men accused of committing over a dozen robberies in the Philadelphia area. According to investigators, the unidentified suspects robbed the following businesses on the following days:
August 16 at 8:30 p.m. - An armed man entered the Beer Box distributor on the 3300 block of Grant Avenue demanding money. He then fled with approximately $1500. Police say he may have used a white Ford Focus as his getaway vehicle. The suspect is described as a man standing between 5-foot-4 and 5-foot-7 wearing a dark blue hooded sweat shirt, gray bandanna, sunglasses and gloves
August 20 at 10:05 p.m. - An armed man entered the Pizza Hut on the 6600 block of Frankford Avenue and demanded money from the cashier. He racked the slide of his gun and ordered the cashier to “hurry up” when the employee didn’t react quickly enough, according to police. He then fled the scene after taking $162 from the register. The suspect is described as a stocky man standing between 6-feet and 6-foot-1 wearing a dark-colored hooded jacket, dark-colored pants, bandanna covering his face and a baseball cap.
August 22 at 1:45 a.m. – Two men, one armed with a handgun, entered the Red Robin restaurant on the 6300 block of Frankford Avenue. The men stole $250 in cash and then fled the scene. The first suspect is described as a man with curly red hair between the ages of 25 and 40, standing 6-foot-2 and weighing 200 pounds. According to police, he was wearing blue jeans, a black or purple bandanna covering his face and a black t-shirt. The second suspect is described as a man between the ages of 25 and 30, standing 5-foot-10 and weighing 180 pounds wearing dark-colored clothing.
August 23 at 10:58 p.m. – An armed man walked into Frostee’s Beverages on the 8400 block of Frankford Avenue demanding money. A second man entered the sales office and began stealing money an employee had just removed from the register. The men then stole more money from a lottery drawer as well as cigarettes before fleeing the store. The first suspect is described as a stocky man standing 5-foot-9 while the second suspect is described as a man standing 6-foot-3. The employee told police they were both wearing black face masks and gloves.
September 11 at 1:17 a.m. – An armed man followed an employee inside the 7-11 on the 1400 block of Cottman Avenue and demanded money. He then stole about $500 in cash and fled the scene. The suspect is described as a stocky man between the ages of 35 and 40, standing 5-foot-8 wearing a black long sleeve shirt, blue jeans and a blue and white bandanna covering his face.
September 18 at 3:13 a.m. – An armed man entered the 7-11 store on the 2600 block of Bridge Street and stole $300 from the register before fleeing the scene. The suspect is described as a medium-built man between the ages of 23 and 24 wearing gloves and a blue bandanna around his face.
September 20 at 8:40 p.m. – An armed man walked into the 7-11 store on the 7900 block of Frankford Avenue and demanded money from the register. He then stole around $230 in cash before fleeing the scene. The suspect is described as a man with a heavy build between the ages of 30 and 35 standing 6-foot-3 and weighing 230 pounds. He was last seen wearing a tan shirt, blue jeans, and a black and yellow striped bandanna covering his face from the nose down.
September 24 at 9:20 p.m. – An armed man entered the 7-11 on the 6600 block of Rising Sun Avenue and demanded money. The suspect stole $200 in cash and then fled the scene. The suspect is described as a heavily built tall man with a light-colored, possibly blond mustache. According to police he was wearing a blue mask covering half of his face, black gloves with the tops of the fingers exposed, black jeans and a black hooded sweatshirt.
September 28 at 3 a.m. – An armed man approached an employee outside the 7-11 on the 2900 block of Welsh Road. The suspect forced the employee back inside the store and demanded money from the register. After the employee told him the register was empty, the suspect demanded a carton of cigarettes, according to police. After the employee told him the store didn’t carry cigarettes, the suspect demanded money from a second register, police said. He then fled with an unknown amount of cash. The suspect is described as a 36-year-old man standing 5-foot-5 and weighing between 180 and 190 pounds. He was last seen wearing a gray jacket, gray hooded sweatshirt, and a blue and white bandanna over his mouth.
September 29 at 10:30 p.m. – An armed man entered a pizza shop on the 5900 block of Erdrick Street and demanded money. He then fled the scene after stealing $230. The suspect is described as a man between the ages of 20 and 25 standing 5-foot-9 and weighing 200 pounds. He was last seen wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and mask over his face.
October 2 at 12:35 a.m. – An armed man entered Pizza City on the 7100 block of Frankford Avenue. The suspect stole $1100 and then fled the scene. He’s described as a man standing between 5-foot-9 and 6-feet. He was last seen wearing a dark jacket over a dark hooded sweatshirt and a dark cloth wrapped around his face.
October 6 at 8:45 p.m. – An armed man walked into Harrison’s Hideout Tavern on the 6300 block of Torresdale Avenue. He then stole $250 from the register and tip jar before fleeing the scene. The suspect is described as a muscular man standing 6-foot-2. He was dressed in a black costume with his face covered and wearing gloves, according to police.
October 7 at 1:40 a.m. – An armed man walked into Andrea’s Place on the 7700 block of Walker Street and stole around $500 from the cash register. He then fled the scene on foot. The suspect is described as a man wearing all black clothing with a black mask and black gloves.
October 10 at 3:14 a.m. – An armed man entered the Wawa on the 800 block of Cottman Avenue and stole around $1000 from two cash registers and the safe before fleeing the scene. The suspect is described as a 35-year-old man standing 6-foot-1 and weighing between 210 and 220 pounds. He was wearing black Muslim garb that came down to his knees, a black scarf covering his face and blue jeans. The victim also told police the suspect was walking with a limp.
No one was hurt during any of the robberies.
If you have any information on the incidents or suspects, please call the Northeast Detective Division at 215-686-3153 / 3154 or call 911.
Police found a man shot six times in his chest in a car in North Philly early Saturday morning.
The victim was driving along Nichols Street near 25th Street around 12:30 a.m. Saturday when he was shot, authorities said. The vehicle came to a stop at Nichols and 26th streets.
Officials rushed the man to Temple University Hospital , where he was pronounced dead.
Investigators have yet to identify the victim.
Republican Gov. Tom Corbett had not even been in office for two months when a Franklin and Marshall College poll delivered what now looks like a prophecy. Corbett's job performance rating of 31 percent was well below the ratings his first-term predecessors, Democrat Ed Rendell and Republican Tom Ridge, had received at that early point in their gubernatorial tenures.
Corbett's performance in the college's latest poll is even lower now that Democrat Tom Wolf is trying to break a four-decade tradition of governors winning a second term. And, with just under four weeks left before the Nov. 4 election, pollsters say they cannot find an example of a candidate in modern Pennsylvania history who, in just four weeks, overcame the kind of polling deficit Corbett now faces.
"The question is, 'can he get a lot of voters to change their minds and do it in a relatively short period of time?'" said G. Terry Madonna, a professor of political science and Franklin and Marshall College's pollster. "History is not on his side."
Said Christopher Borick, a political science professor and pollster at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, "It becomes very hard to move people who have established a view and that's the challenge facing Gov. Corbett. How do you do that?"
The latest independent poll, by Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University, showed Corbett trailing Wolf by 17 percentage points among likely voters surveyed in the first week of October. Quinnipiac's polling director, Douglas Schwartz, also could not recall an example where a gubernatorial candidate overcame such a deficit in such a short period of time.
For Corbett, unfortunately, the election is about him and not Wolf, say pollsters.
Wolf, a first-time candidate who was little-known before February, won the May 20 Democratic primary election in a landslide, beating three other opponents who, despite having far more experience in politics and government, also had relatively low statewide name recognition.
The trick was a 60-second TV ad that began running Jan. 30 and was widely praised as effective _ featuring his take on key issues, his family and his employees while bringing Wolf to life in a folksy, apolitical way that seemed to resonate with registered Democrats. It helped that Wolf, independently wealthy, contributed $10 million to underwrite his robust air campaign.
Now, Wolf only has to be nothing more than an acceptable alternative to Corbett, pollsters say.
"This is 85 to 90 percent about Corbett," Madonna said.
On Thursday, at a rally in the Philadelphia suburb of Wayne, Corbett gave what is now his ready answer to a reporter's questions about the grim polls: He said he still expects to win, after pulling out victories despite being down in the polls in every race he's run before.
Supporters who came to see the governor acknowledged that the governor had taken his lumps.
Asked what had hurt Corbett the most, supporters brought up criticism of his budget-balancing cuts to public school aid -- amid rising public pension costs and the expiration of the federal government's recessionary budget aid to states -- and his handling of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.
Oscar Mestre, a financial planning consultant from Berwyn, said any voter's decision to punish Corbett for the fallout from the Sandusky scandal was irrational, and he defended Corbett's education policy as demanding more from schools for the money.
"Money can fix a lot of things, but it doesn't fix a broken system," Mestre said.
His supporters also know Corbett is doing poorly in the polls. Even New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, asked about it after the rally he headlined for Corbett on Thursday, acknowledged it.
"They are what they are, he said with a shrug, before insisting that enough time remains to close the gap.
Told that a Corbett comeback would be unprecedented, Harry DiPilla listened soberly. Still, the 68-year-old retired bus driver from Philadelphia said he planned to vote, and he insisted that the power of incumbency will carry Corbett to victory.
"He'll get back in there," DiPilla said.
Two masked men -- armed with handguns -- robbed a bank in a posh Philly suburb Saturday morning.
The suspects stormed the TD Bank branch on the 200 block of East Lancaster Avenue in Wayne, Montgomery County with 9mm guns around 10 a.m., according to police.
Radnor Police plan to release more details about the incident during a press conference Saturday afternoon.
Stay with NBC10 for more on this developing story.
Two ACME supermarkets in our area are set to close next month.
Officials announced the ACME store on W. Butler Avenue in Chalfont, Pennsylvania as well as the store on E. Street Road in Warminster, Pennsylvania will close November 13.
“All of our stores go through a pretty extensive quarterly review process,” said Angie Perez, a spokeswoman for ACME. “At these particular two locations we were not meeting our company’s goals. We made a decision to shift our resources to other areas.”
About 130 employees in all work in both stores, according to Perez.
“We are confident that we can place them in other stores nearby,” she said.
Wendell Young, president of local 1776, told NBC10 the majority of the impacted workers are members of his union.
“There are 58 union employees in Warminster and 55 in Chalfont,” Young said. “There are also about a dozen UFCW local 152 members.”
According to Young, members of his union will be able to transfer to other ACME stores though he’s unsure about the local 152 workers.
“That’s not necessarily the greatest thing because it puts pressure on the schedules in those stores,” Young said. “But in terms of their jobs, they all have the rights to transfer to other jobs. January, February and March is when people are going to feel it the most. Some people will be really affected. For some people it’s a quality of life issue. They’ll have to work weekends or lose seniority.”
Perez told NBC10 officials don’t plan on closing other locations in the near future.
“In fact it’s just the opposite,” Perez said. “We have opened up beer cafes called the Frosted Mug in two ACME stores, one in Flourtown and one at 19th Street and Oregon Avenue. These are the first two stores we have been able to sell beer out of and a lot of that is because we had to extensively renovate it.”
Perez also said ACME officials are “investing very heavily" in a store in Beach Haven, New Jersey.
“We are in the process of building a store there that will be 83 percent larger,” she said.
Two men, one armed with a gun, ransacked a bedroom in a woman's Philadelphia home Saturday morning apparently in search of cash and illegal drugs, according to police.
The 52-year-old victim was in her bedroom when she heard a noise in her home, located on the 1900 block of Latona Street in the Point Breeze section of the city, around 6:50 a.m. and discovered two men going through her hall closet, authorities said.
One of the suspects pointed a handgun at the woman, forced her back into her bedroom and made her put a pillow over her face while the other assailant tore apart her brother's bedroom, police said.
Unsatisfied with the search, the gunman asked the woman, "Where is the money and drugs at?" and then took her downstairs as they combed her living room, kitchen and basement, investigators said.
The men eventually left the home with a backpack, according to officials.
Police describe the gunman as 5-feet 5-inches tall with a medium build and wearing olive green, camouflage pants and a mask.
The second suspect, who was wearing all black clothing and a black mask, is about 5-feet 6-inches tall, according to authorities.
Anyone with information about the suspects or the home invasion is urged to contact police.
Two days after the family of 'Bucket List Baby' Shane experienced the emotional birth — and soon thereafter loss of the newborn — a hacker broke into the parents' Facebook page and began posting explicit images.
"I just need it fixed," Jenna Gassew, Shane's mom, said through tears. "It means everything to us. These are our memories."
Gassew and her husband, Dan Haley, started the Facebook page, Prayers for Shane, earlier this year to track the memories they created for their unborn child, who was diagnosed with anencephaly — a rare, terminal condition — in utero.
Nearly one million people are following the page, which included photos of the expectant Delaware County couple's trips to Linvilla Orchard's petting zoo, the Jersey Shore, and, most recently, the day Gassew gave birth to Shane.
Around 1:30 p.m. Saturday, the couple received a message, which appeared to come from Facebook, asking them to verify the Prayers for Shane account, Gassew explained.
"The email looked very, very similar to one we got before," she said.
But the message was not from the social media site's administrators like the last time.
"It looked legit, so I typed in Dan's name and password," Gassew said. "And then they took control of Shane's page and took me out of being able to control it."
Gassew immediately contacted Facebook to rectify the problem. NBC10 staff also reached out to Facebook in an effort to expedite the process.
Many of the page's followers — upset by the posts, which included sexual imagery — began blasting the hacker in comments.
As Shane's parents work to restore control over the webpage, Gassew has asked the followers to simply mark the posts as spam instead of unfollowing the page.
Contact Alison Burdo at 610.668.5635, alison.burdo@nbcuni.com or follow @NewsBurd on Twitter.
Cailin Mulvihill was overjoyed when she got a call saying someone found her lost dog.
The woman who had found Rhonda, Mulvihill's missing chihuahua, spotted the pet owner's phone number on a flyer and called to say she had taken the dog to the Animal Care & Control Team at 111 West Hunting Park Ave. in North Philly.
Mulvihill rushed to the ACCT, where she filled out a missing dog report in-person on Oct. 2 -- a day before receiving the call.
But the pet owner didn’t get the happy reunion she thought she would -- Rhonda had been euthanized.
“This is not right," Mulvihill said.
The devastated woman asked for an explanation from ACCT's staff, who initially told her they had scanned Rhonda’s microchip but it didn’t work, Mulvihill explained.
But Mulvihill, unconvinced, drove Rhonda’s body to her veterinarian’s office in Hatfield, Montgomery County.
Once there, Dr. Judith Tamas scanned Rhonda’s microchip three times and the chip worked every time. "This is the worst kind of negligence [and] laziness," Dr. Tamas said.
"I do not want this to happen to anyone else," Mulvihill added.
Staff at the ACCT admitted to NBC10 Saturday the microchip was never scanned -- directly going against the agency's protocol, which calls for workers to check for microchips twice. Staff are expected to scan for the chip at the front desk when the animal is dropped off at the facility and a second time when the animal undergoes a medical examination.
"It was not callous, but policy was overlooked," Sue Cosby, the executive director of ACCT, told Philly.com.
Yet Cosby insisted the "horrible mistake" was made out of concern for Rhonda.
Dogs that are in "extreme pain and beyond sedation" when they are dropped off could be put down after they are scanned twice for a microchip and on-call supervisor approves the decision, according to the ACCT.
At 15-years-old, Rhonda was an older dog with some health issues including sporadic seizures, but her medical history was overall “uneventful” and “her problems were typical of aging dogs," Dr. Tamas said.
After admitting the error, the ACCT put the staff member responsible for the euthanization on unpaid leave while the agency decides what steps to take next, Cosby said.
While Mulvihill is happy the ACCT is working to prevent the same thing from happening again in the future, she has a message for the pet she lost.
“I love you Rhonda and you are perfect in every way."
Investigators suspect a two-alarm blaze at a vacant warehouse in Gloucester County was intentionally set.
A warehouse on Edgewater Avenue and Deadline Drive in Westville, New Jersey caught fire early Saturday evening. Firefighters continue to battle smoke at the building. No one was injured however.
Police told NBC10 they suspect the fire was arson. They continue to investigate.
This story is developing. Stay with NBC10.com for updates.
A 14-year-old boy was arrested after he allegedly stole a pickup truck and then tried to flee police after a hit-and-run crash in Lehigh County.
The boy was driving a stolen black GMC Sierra SLT on Airport Road in Hanover Township around 11:15 a.m. Saturday, according to investigators. As he turned left onto Race Street, the boy lost control of the vehicle, traveled over a raised concrete divider and struck another car in the front left bumper, police said.
The teen then allegedly fled the scene, driving west on Race Street toward Catasauqua Borough.
A Catasauqua Police officer said he spotted the teen inside the vehicle near Bridge and Front streets in Catasauqua shortly before 2 p.m. and tried to stop and speak with him. The boy allegedly refused to stop and drove to an abandoned industrial building nearby.
The teen entered the building with the vehicle and tried to exit by crashing into the interior door. The vehicle then came to a final stop and the teen was arrested.
The teen was taken into custody. Police are not identifying him since he is a minor. Charges against him will be filed in Lehigh County Juvenile Court.
Delaware men just don't want to grow up, according to a new study. A ranking from real estate blog Estately named Delaware men the second most immature in the United States. Rhode Island men came in at number one.
The inspiration for the blog came from a Pew Research survey which focused on the decline of marriage in America.
The survey based its criteria off of the following factors:
The immaturity rankings are based on how much male Facebook users between the ages of 25 and 65 in each state post about their love for Fantasy Football, beer pong, video games and Family Guy. Porn viewership was assessed by the number of downloads per capita by state, while employment was based on the unemployment rate for each state.
Pennsylvania men came in at number 16, while New Jersey men landed at number 43 for most immature. New Jersey men were also ranked at number 8 for the most mature.
The blog post generated a bit of controversy. Several men commented on the article, claiming the factors Estately chose to focus on were not indicative of immaturity. But what do you think? Take a look at their full list and criteria.
After a burglary, two false alarms and plenty of anxiety, a Philadelphia woman was finally reunited with her stolen dog.
“I knew I would get her back,” said a relieved Nia Kora. “I just had to keep trying and keep looking.”
On July 30 at midnight, two men entered Kora’s home on the 1900 block of West Girard Avenue.
The suspects stole her 4-year-old Pomeranian dog Chispa aka Chi Chi, as well as a flat screen television and a Microsoft X-box 360.
Kora immediately notified police as well as the community, posting signs and asking around. As the weeks went on with no sign of her dog, Kora began to keep a low profile, fearful for her pet’s safety.
“I didn’t know if the people who had her were mad enough to hurt her,” Kora said. “That was the toughest part. Not being able to ask about it.”
After her dog’s disappearance, Kora was contacted twice by people who believed they found Chi-Chi.
“The first time my friend heard somebody found a Pomeranian,” Kora said. “But it wasn’t her because she didn’t weigh the same. The second time they found another one that was a boy. It was just hard coming home and she wasn’t running up to the door.”
Little did Kora know, her dog was not only safe but in the home of a man she already knew, Henry Collins, owner of the Mecca Unisex Salon on North Broad Street.
“In the summertime a student came in saying he was going home for the summer,” Collins said. “He wanted to sell the dog for $550 since he couldn’t take the dog on an airplane. He said the dog’s name was Candy.”
Wanting to get a pet for his 3-year-old son, Collins bought the dog and even got her the proper shots at the veterinarian’s office. Yet while his son loved the dog, Collins knew there was something a bit strange about the newest edition to his family.
“She wouldn’t respond to the name Candy,” Collins said.
Collins’ suspicions became even greater when he first read reports about Kora’s dog being stolen.
“There was a big article about a Pomeranian dog missing,” Collins said. “That caught my attention since I had one. Then they said the dog had been missing since the summer and I knew we had gotten her during the summer.”
After finding out the stolen dog’s name was Chi Chi, Collins decided to conduct a little test.
“I said, ‘Chi Chi.’ Then the dog stuck her head in the air, as if it was the first time in three months she had heard her name,” Collins said.
Collins found Kora ‘s contact information and spoke to her on Facetime. When Kora mentioned the word “calm,” was on the dog’s collar, he knew he found the rightful owner.
“I didn’t tell her it said ‘calm.’” Collins said. “That’s when I knew for a fact that this was her dog.”
Kora knew it was Chi Chi just by looking at her through video.
“I saw the charm that she had,” Kora said. “I just knew it was her.”
Despite paying hundreds of dollars for the dog, Collins didn’t think twice about returning Chi Chi to Kora.
“It was the right thing to do,” Collins said. “You get blessings from God if you do the right thing, even if you’re put in difficult situations.”
Kora was overjoyed not only by Collins’ good deed but also how well he and his family took care of her beloved pet.
“She looked great, got her shots and everything,” Kora said. “And I actually met him two weeks ago and didn’t even know. I’ve been coming to his shop for a long time actually.”
Collins told NBC10 he hasn’t broke the news to his son yet and knows he’ll be disappointed.
“It’s going to be real sad for my son,” Collins said. “The dog really got attached to the family. I can’t think of a way to tell him without him crying.”
Thankful for everything Collins and his family did for her, Kora said she’s more than willing to allow Chi Chi to visit her second home.
“We’re going to do joint custody,” Kora said with a smile. “It’s a happy joint custody.”
Despite the happy ending, the investigation is far from over. Police continue to search for the two men who burglarized Kora’s home. They have not yet revealed a detailed description however or confirmed whether the student who sold Chi Chi to Collins was involved.
If you have any information on the suspects, please call Central Detective Division at 215-686-3093/3094.
