Maria Taylor spent Sunday night feeling on edge in the West Philadelphia rowhouse she's shared with her husband for several decades.
Taylor, 71, uses a walker to get around, so the news on Sunday that two robbers ruthlessly targeted her 91-year-old neighbor, kicking in the woman's door in the middle of the night and robbing her of her cellphone, iPad and computer, scared her.
But by Monday afternoon, Taylor's worries were soothed as word spread on the tight-knit block that police had caught at least one of the suspects believed to be responsible for the 3 a.m. break-in.
"I feel better now that they caught him," Taylor said from her front porch.
Investigators were able to identify one of the men and track him down, Lt. John Walker of Southwest Detective Division confirmed. The man, who Walker said is in his 20s, was expected to be formally charged by the end of the day Monday.
Taylor said the block of Felton Street just north of Market, lined with trees and porched brick rowhouses, is usually quiet, but for the rumbling of El trains along its southern end.
"That's why it's so shocking," Taylor said. She said her 91-year-old neighbor is a community-involved woman who used to own a business in the neighborhood.
"She's a sweet person," Taylor said of the woman. "She tries to get out, tries to help people."
Police said the victim, who was home alone at the time, did not suffer any physical injuries during the home invasion.
There was no answer at the door of the woman's tidy porched rowhouse Monday afternoon. Tony Boyd, 52, who lives on the next block over and said his wife is good friends with the victim, knocked on her door to check on her before he left for work.
"That was heartbreaking," Boyd said. "My wife was so upset ... that was a shock. That's so close to home."
Boyd and other neighbors on the street said crime on that particular block, nestled between 62nd and 63rd streets near the edge of the city limits, is uncommon. But in the wee hours Sunday leading up to the home invasion, one man from the block said, something seemed amiss.
"A lady and a man came here asking for help," Steven, a young man who lives across the street from the 91-year-old victim, recounted. He said he heard yelling outside and a knock at his door early that morning and was met by a woman he'd never seen before asking for help, but he decided not to let her inside.
"I thought it was suspicious," the man, who asked that his last name be withheld, said.
It was unclear whether the knock on his door and the home invasion across the street were connected.
There was no word Monday on the second suspect.
Photo Credit: NBC10 - Morgan Zalot
