Krispy Kreme has planned its first Delaware store.

• WATCH: How the stars do fitness and food

It will be in a new building on a former Pizza Hut site at 114 N. DuPont Highway in New Castle, Del.

The store, which will have 40-50 employees, will open this spring.

It’s the fifth store the franchise group, Dough Nuts for Doughnuts LLC, the area developer for Philadelphia and surrounding areas in Pennsylvania, Delaware and southern New Jersey.

The franchise group is owned by cousins Brian Zaslow and former AAMCO Transmissions owner Keith Morgan, who is CEO.

Read more about this story at PBJ.com.

The Philadelphia multifamily market ended last year on a strong note despite more apartment units coming onto the market.

• WATCH: The hunt for a new pad

The apartment sector in the city saw asking rents grow by 2.6 percent and its vacancy decline slightly to 3.3 percent, according to Reis Inc., a real estate research company.

Average monthly rent is $1,092. New York and San Francisco top the list in rent growth with average prices coming in at $3,105 and $2,081, respectively.

Of the top 79 U.S. markets, Philadelphia ranked 24th in it vacancy rate with New Haven, Conn., having the lowest at 2.2 percent and Memphis, Tenn., with 8 percent of its apartment inventory empty.

Read more about this story at PBJ.com.

A man who is no stranger to law enforcement found himself in even more trouble after he allegedly dragged an officer during a traffic stop.

Jeremy Selby, 27, is accused of a litany of charges including resisting arrest, DUI, reckless endangerment, heroin possession and more charges.

A Wilmington Police Officer pulled over Selby’s Saturn Aura after the Wilmington resident allegedly turned the wrong way down the 1400 block Lancaster Avenue around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to police.

During the traffic stop, officers saw what appeared to be an open container of alcohol in the car. Police say the officers also noticed the Selby slurred his speech and had bloodshot eyes.

The officers ordered Selby to the car off but instead they say he threw several bags of heroin out of the car and drove off, according to investigators.

An officer reached into the vehicle to try and get Selby out but Selby allegedly continued to drive off, trying to push the officer out of the window.

The officer won the battle and was able to stop the car about a block away.

The officer wasn’t hurt.

Selby, a convicted felon on monitored release, was arrested and sent to Howard R. Young Correctional Institution unable to post $45,000 cash bail.

A driver paying a toll died after a big rig slammed into his car causing a fiery wreck that left two people hurt.

On Tuesday morning, Pennsylvania State Police identified the driver of the station wagon that was struck at the tollbooths on westbound Interstate 78 in Williams Township, Pa.

Police say Daniel Murphy of Hackettstown, N.J. was stopped in toll lane 4 of I--78 near Morgan Hill Road when a ShopRite tractor-trailer driven by an unidentified 55-year-old from Allentown, Pa. rammed into Murphy's 200 Ford Taurus wagon.

The force of the crash carried both vehicles through the tollbooth -- Murphy's wagon becoming stuck under the big rig. Parts of the wreckage slammed into the tollbooth before coming to a stop several lanes over against an embankment and bursting into flames sending smoke billowing into the air.

"It's a terrible sight," said Pennsylvania State Trooper Marc Allen. "We have at least one fatality."

Murphy, 65, was trapped in the wreckage and died at the scene. The tractor-trailer driver got out and was transported to a local hospital, according to ShopRite.

A tollbooth worker was also injured when that worker run towards the fiery crash with a fire extinguisher.

Witnesses claimed they saw the tractor-trailer swerving and moving quickly before the crash. Police did not confirm those details.

Police stopped westbound traffic and closed the tollbooths for hours. The backup spread all the way back to New Jersey where police diverted cars off the highway.

• Get the latest traffic from NBC10.com

Late Monday afternoon, two lanes on I-78 westbound reopened. The four remaining lanes reopened around 6:30 p.m.

The investigation into the crash is ongoing.

ShopRite released a brief statement that in parts read: "...Our thoughts and sympathies go out to the families of all involved in this terrible accident."

A Delaware man was arrested for allegedly abusing his own mother.

On Sunday, around 11 a.m., New Castle County Police were called to the Christiana Medical Center for a report of an abuse to an elderly woman.

An officer arrived and learned that a 79-year-old woman had been taken to the hospital. The officer learned the woman was unable to care for herself and relied heavily on her son, identified as 39-year-old Stephen Myers.

Investigators learned that the woman had been mistreated and suffered injuries to her upper body while in her son’s care, according to officials.

On Monday, Myers was arrested and taken into custody. He is charged with abuse, neglect, exploitation or mistreatment of an infirmed adult and assault in the second degree. He was released on $8,000 unsecured bond and was issued a no contact order.

 

PMC Property Group, backed by Lubert-Adler, is seeking to buy the Marketplace Design Center in Center City, according to real estate market sources.

PMC Property is a multifamily developer based in Philadelphia and Lubert-Adler, also of Philadelphia, manages a real estate fund that invests in a wide array of projects. It has backed PMC Property on past projects.

An official with PMC Property couldn’t be reached for comment.

Marketplace Design Center is comprised of two buildings — 2400 Market St., which is about 370,000 square feet, and 12 S. 23rd St., a six-story, 120,000-square-foot building. PMC Property has a significant multifamily presence in Center City. Read more about this story at PBJ.com

More NBC10.com stories:

• Krispy Kreme Returns to Delaware
• Full Text of Christie's State of the State
• Why Are Donuts Associated With Cops?

For more breaking business news go to PBJ.com

The University of Pennsylvania Police Department’s newest rookie is making history as she walks her beat in University City. Socks, an 18-month-old yellow Labrador, is the first K9 officer to join the university’s police force in its 42-year history.

An ordnance disposal canine, Socks will use her trained nose to sniff out potentially explosive materials inside suspicious packages left around campus.

"I’m 100 percent confident in her. I know if there’s something out there she will find it," said Socks’ partner Officer Julie Wesley, who has been training with the pup for the past few months. "This is all I ever wanted to do, so it’s very fulfilling for me."

Maureen Rush, Penn’s Vice President of Public Safety, says adding a K9 Unit to the 116 officer force grew out of a need to properly prepare for and cover visits to the university by VIPs.

"We have a ton of dignitaries that come to Penn, as you can imagine. Vice presidents, presidents and we have a lot of events like commencement. After 9/11, we started working very closely with ATF, the Philadelphia Bomb Squad…and planned these events around what could happen," she said speaking to fears about terrorism.

Rush says the department used to rely on other agencies like the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Philadelphia Police, Amtrak and SEPTA to help with K9 sweeps, but with Socks, the department has its own officer to contribute.

"She’ll be part of the team of K9 dogs that will sweep for dignitaries," she said.

Penn Police patrol a 2.5 square mile area in University City and parts of West Philadelphia – home to more than 40,000 students, employees and patients at both the university and its hospitals and research facilities. The area, which borders some of Philadelphia’s more troubled neighborhoods, is also not immune to violent crimes like robberies and shootings.

Top brass are looking to incorporate Socks, who is also trained to detect black powder, into assisting with a shooting investigation or in the search of a home or facility while executing a warrant.

"Recently fired weapons, shell casings, she can track for those based on her training," said Wesley. "But it needs to be pretty recently fired for her to detect that because it is such a small amount [of black powder.]"

While she just joined the force, Socks grew up at the university.

The Labrador was fostered by the one of the school’s administrators and was part of the inaugural class of dogs to be trained at the Penn Vet Working Dog Center -- a research and training facility run by the university’s veterinary school.

The center trains dogs from 8-weeks-old for careers in bomb detection, narcotics, search and rescue, diabetic alert and even ovarian cancer detection.

"We bring them in and we just teach them to search [at first]. We teach them to search for a person and we teach them to search for a toy and that toy can be transitioned over to explosives, narcotics, human remains, arson and they’re learning that this is the best game in the world," says Annemarie DeAngelo, the center’s K9 training director.

DeAngelo, who started New Jersey State Police’s K9 Unit and spent nearly 32 years as a trooper, says the center also collects research data during the training programs to learn which breeds are best for certain tasks.

"Some of the vet students will look into their genetics and look at their health and look at their workability," she said. "Have they had specific health tests, what are their working lines, do they do search and rescue, are they hunting dogs, are they police dogs and to see if that has been bred into them."

Once they’re ready for active duty, typically a year after the training begins, the canines are transferred to their new owners and put into service.

Socks may be the first K9 on the Penn Police force, but she won’t be the last. Officials say they plan to add at least one other dog to the unit in the future – once they work through the growing pains.

"It’s a learning experience for us," said Penn Police Capt. Gerry Leddy. "We’re learning about what resources we have to have here to continue training for Socks and Julie. So every day we’re learning a little something new about the K9 unit."

Contact Vince Lattanzio at 610.668.5532, vince.lattanzio@nbcuni.com or follow @VinceLattanzio on Twitter.

You've probably joked about cops and donuts before, most people have.

The Wilmington Police Department acknowledges the relationship and takes a stab at explaining where the connection between cops and donuts came from in a funny YouTube video. In the clip, Cpl. Mark Ivey says before there were 24-hour convenience stores, most businesses were closed overnight. Yet, it was the donut shops that were open and uniform police officers could enter.

"Cops still enjoy donuts as much as the next person," said Ivey.

Some shops provide police officers with free drinks and donuts to welcome the officers. Their presence offers a sense of security. The department video has more than 1,300 views in 5 days on YouTube.

Yet while the video was meant to merely poke fun, not everyone is appreciating the humor.

"Some officers were concerned that people wouldn't take us seriously and we'd look like keystone cops who aren't taking our jobs seriously by creating a video like this," Ivey said.

While both the Police Chief and Mayor liked the video, some found the video inappropriate, especially during a time in which Wilmington is dealing with a tremendous amount of violence. Ivey insists however that the video is part of the solution and a creative way to strengthen the department's relationship with the community.

"By showing that you can poke fun at yourself, that you can laugh at yourself and that you are just an everyday citizen going out there and doing a difficult job and that you need their help, that's how you can solve this problem, " he said.

The Mayor of Wilmington recently announced a plan to "flood" crime prone areas with police officers in order to ensure that there are more officers than criminals. Ivey and others are hoping that the new strategy combined with the self-deprecating video will help make the Wilmington streets a lot safer.

A teenage boy was arrested after he allegedly tried to rape a woman at a park in Lansdale.

• WATCH: Trial Set for Alleged Rapist

On Monday, a 25-year-old woman told police she was at Stoney Creek Park on E. Hancock Street with her three children when she spotted a teen, later identified as Herson Guardado, a homeless, 16-year-old boy and citizen of El Salvador.

As the woman placed her children in her car and her back was turned, Guardado allegedly came up from behind, placed his arm around her neck and stuck what she believed to be a knife in her side.

The woman says he was wearing a blue mask and that he forced her to walk towards a wooded area. Guardado allegedly told the woman, “you want sex.” The woman managed to break free and the teen ran towards the woods, according to investigators.

The woman called Lansdale Police who searched the area with a K-9 unit. Police say they eventually tracked Guardado towards Upper Gwynedd. An Upper Gwynedd Police Officer later spotted Guardado on the tracks near the 500 block of Church Road, according to police.

Police say a second officer saw Guardado exiting the wood line nearby and was able to detain him. The woman later identified Guardado as her attacker.

Police say Guardado had a knife, marijuana and a pipe in his possession.

Guardado is charged with attempted rape, simple assault, attempted sexual assault and other related offenses. Guardado failed to post $100,000 bail. He was later taken to the Montgomery County Correctional facility. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for January 27.
 

Officials at the Delaware River Joint Bridge Toll Commission (DRJBTC) say non-E-ZPass holders who were diverted through E-ZPass lanes on I-78 yesterday due to a fatal accident at a Pa. toll plaza, will not see any tickets or fines following the temporary diversion.

"They did divert into the express E-ZPass entry, but no violations were recorded for that period," DRJBTC spokesman Ethan Vickers said.

According to police, Daniel Murphy of Hackettstown, N.J. stopped in toll lane 4 of I-78 near Morgan Hill Road when a ShopRite tractor-trailer driven by an unidentified 55-year-old from Allentown, Pa. rammed into Murphy's 200 Ford Taurus wagon, pushing both vehicles through the tollbooth. The vehicles eventually came to a stop several lanes over against an embankment and burst into flames.

The Commission issued travel delay warnings for westbound lanes on I-78 in Warren County, N.J. and shutdown a portion of the westbound lanes between the last exit in N.J. and the first exit in Pa. yesterday around 8:30 a.m. E-ZPass violations were temporarily suspended and traffic was diverted through eastbound and Express E-ZPass facility lanes until 6:25 p.m., when Vickers says the violation procedures went back into effect.

Parts of the accident wreckage left one of the plaza's tollbooths severely damaged. Vickers says DRJBTC officials are very early in the process of creating an action plan to repair the damages, but said the tollbooth is structurally sound.

With one tollbooth closed for repairs, the toll plaza will now operate three mixed-mode lanes that will accept both cash and E-ZPass. Vickers says the conversion to mixed-mode lanes should not have a significant effect on E-ZPass users because the site also has two separate Express E-ZPass lanes that drivers can use.

"65-percent of the traffic at that particular crossing uses the Express E-ZPass entry, which is in multiple lanes to the left. So, the majority or two-thirds of the traffic, they are passing without having to stop at the toll booth," Vickers said.

Due to the toll plaza's reduction from four lanes to three lanes, however, the Commission said westbound I-78 drivers paying cash tolls at the plaza may encounter traffic congestion and some delays during peak traffic hours until the fourth toll booth lane is repaired. Overall, Vickers said he expects minimal effects to traffic on the roadway while the repairs are being completed.

"There may be occasional impact for cash paying customers in high traffic times until that repair is completed and that 4th toll booth is functional again," Vickers said. "But I would say that pretty minimalistic traffic issues will be ongoing from this incident."

Police are on the hunt for female thieves who they say are targeting local Apple stores.

“There are five females,” said Upper Merion Police Officer Harry Nuskey. “What happens is the females approach the store. Two of them stay outside and act as guards. Three of them will go inside. While inside, one of the females will distract the store staff. What they’ll do is they’ll take them to the other side of the store to look at merchandise while the other two take what they want. Then all five will leave together.”

Police say the group first targeted an Apple Store in the King of Prussia Mall back on January 3, swiping iPhones and iPads. The group allegedly returned to the same store the next day, once again stealing items while distracting employees.

“They don’t mind coming back,” Nuskey said. “They’re repeat offenders.”

Police also say the same group targeted an Apple Store at the Suburban Square shopping center in Lower Merion back on December 23. The women allegedly returned to Suburban Square on Christmas Eve and an employee called police. By the time police arrived however, the thieves were gone.

Sources also tell NBC10 the same group may be responsible for thefts at Apple stores in Philadelphia and Willow Grove.

At this point, police say they only have a vague description of the women. They are in the process of getting surveillance video from the Apple stores as the investigation continues.

If you have any information on the suspects, please call Lower Merion or Upper Merion Police.
 

Police are searching for a man and woman who they say broke into a home in Moorestown, New Jersey and then threatened the homeowners when they returned.

The homeowners told police they returned to their house on the 100 block of W. Maple Avenue late Tuesday afternoon. As they entered their home, police say they were confronted by a man and woman in their mid to late 30’s.

The male suspect allegedly tried to punch the male homeowner. He then allegedly threatened him and claimed he had a gun. Both suspects then fled the home. They were last seen driving east on Maple Avenue towards Chester Avenue. None of the victims were injured in the incident.

The homeowners told police the suspects were driving a GMC Sierra pickup with the NJ registration MYL-85V. Police say the vehicle was reported stolen Tuesday morning in Monroe Township.

Police have not yet determined if anything was stolen from the home. They continue to search for the suspects.

If you have any information on this incident, call Moorestown Police at 856-914-3092.
 

Police are on the hunt for two armed robbers who they say stole thousands of dollars during a home invasion in the Nicetown-Tioga section of the city.

Police say the suspects broke into a home with people inside on the 1800 block of West Tioga Street on Tuesday. Both men were armed and at least one was wearing a mask, according to investigators.

The suspects allegedly stole around $39,000 before fleeing the scene west on Tioga Street. No one was injured during the incident.

Police have not yet released a description of the suspects. They continue to investigate.

Stay with NBC10.com for more details on this developing story.

Also on NBC10.com:

• Home Invaders Threaten Homeowners: Police
• Man Pistol-Whipped in Home
• Utility Worker Impostors Rob Home
   

Potholes have always been a nuisance at best and a danger at worst for drivers everywhere. But as temperatures in our area continue to go up and down, the number of reported potholes so far this year is far exceeding the norm, keeping street crews busy and drivers on edge.

According to PennDOT officials, in Philadelphia alone, the number of reported potholes is 40% higher this time of year than normal with over 500 instances being reported in only two weeks.

“This is an early outbreak of potholes,” said Gene Blaum of PennDOT. “We’ve had maintenance crews throughout the five county region from PennDOT basically working full-time on potholes.”

Officials say up and down temperatures as well as precipitation that freezes and then thaws in roadway cracks are causing the recent outbreak. Potholes on several streets, such as Woodhaven Road, Girard Avenue and the City Avenue exit on I-76 are damaging the tires of cars across the area.

“I’ve hit potholes but I couldn’t even believe it,” said Emily Brennan. “My car started thudding and I almost had a panic attack about this.”

Officials with the city of Philadelphia told NBC10 their goal is to repair all potholes within 48 hours. PennDOT officials say their rough estimate is about 72 hours. PennDOT has about ten crews working citywide and three to four each in the surrounding five counties. They’re also urging drivers to report any potholes they see.

If you spot a pothole in Philly, call 311. If you spot one on a road in the surrounding counties, call 1-800-FIX-ROAD.