A purple tee shirt and Prop 8 were enough to get someone to smash a store window at the American Apparel clothing store on Colesville Road and Fenton Street earlier this week. Coverage from ABC-7 News spells it out: (more…)
By Jennifer Deseo | Jul 23, 2009
By Jennifer Deseo | Jul 20, 2009
Criminal craziness in the third police district declined in the first three months of 2009, compared with the same time last year, according to numbers published last week by the MoCo police department.
The largest percentage drop was in the district’s murder rate. Last year, one person was murdered between January and March. Compare that with a big, fat zero murders that went down between the same months this year. That’s a 100-percent decrease. (more…)
By Jennifer Deseo | Jun 16, 2009
Photo: Tony Hausner talks public safety with the neighborhoods committee. Credit: J. Dese/SSP.
Ideas for keeping Silver Spring safe were crawling out of the woodworks at last month’s public-safety summit. Now the summit’s organizers want to know how to turn those ideas into action.
“The biggest success [of the summit] was that we had so many outstanding recommendations — too many,” Tony Hausner, an event organizer and Indian Spring resident, admitted to Silver Spring’s neighborhoods committee Monday night. (more…)
By Jennifer Deseo | May 14, 2009
Less than one week after the state banned texting at the wheel, this sign on Georgia at Sligo avenues encouraged passing motorists to text crime tips to a MoCo PD hotline. On the plus side, text messages to the tip line remain confidential, thus erasing any worry of self-incrimination.
Video captured May 13, 2009, by J. Deseo/SSP.
By Jennifer Deseo | May 8, 2009
Thursday’s break in the deluge allowed Penguin staffers to stroll the town on coffee break. Thankfully, they had their camera phones in hand:
Coming soon: The Slurpee
One can almost smell the hot dogs rolling on the grill at downtown Silver Spring’s latest 7-11 store, going into the former Noble Roman pizza shop on Colesville Road near Second Avenue. Now, post-office patrons will have a choice between the Big Gulp and a Big Mac from the nearby McDonald’s restaurant.
The soon-to-open convenience store will be the fourth 7-11 store in Silver Spring’s central business district. (There’s one on Georgia Avenue in South Silver Spring, one in The Georgian apartment building on Fenwick Lane and First Avenue, and another on Fenton Street and Sligo Avenue.) Compare that with the ubiquitous Starbucks, which has two full stores — near the Silver Spring Metro station, and on Ellsworth Drive — and a small counter inside the Giant Foods at The Blairs.
Coming soon: Pizza by the slice
If late-night beer and condom runs to 7-11 aren’t your thing, there’s Flippin’ Pizza. The growing chain, which touts its product as “in your face” New York-style pizza, already has stores in California and Virginia. (Because that’s where New York-style pizza is really from.) And now it’s setting up shop on Colesville Road near Ramsey Avenue, between a Qdoba Mexican restaurant and an M&T Bank.
The retail space originally was to be occupied by a Dunkin Donuts franchise, according to several sources. But that deal imploded last year before the dough could hit the fryer.
Going down: High-voltage law enforcement
Late last month, Penguin Twitter buddy @DCDebbie captured this sequence of photos on the north side of Ellsworth Drive, next to the civic center construction site on Fenton Street.
According to Debbie, a group of boys (exact age unknown) began fighting on the corner, across the street from the Chick-Fil-A restaurant. That’s when a police officer drew his taser (below left) and zapped one of the brawlers. It’s unclear whether the cop was responding to a 911 call, or if he had spotted the scuffle by chance.
In the next pic, the boys are shown eating pavement after being tased. It’s unknown if anyone was charged with a crime, or if the tasing resulted in any injuries.
According to one taser vendor, the electro-gun throws out between 11,000 and 50,000 volts of juice (depending on the model) to take down a dude.
Store photos by J. Deseo for The Penguin. Taser shots courtesy of Twitter user @DCDebbie.
Updated to include one more 7-11 store in the central business district, and to pimp out the taser pics. — JD (May 8, 2009)
By Jennifer Deseo | Apr 14, 2009
A dry cleaner and convenience store along 16th Street were knocked over last week in what police believed to be a series of related robberies.
According to MoCo PD’s major-crimes investigators, four masked dudes entered the Summit Hill Mini Mart at 8519 16th St on Thursday evening. One pointed a handgun at store employees and snatched the cash from a state lottery machine, then all four took off in a maroon four-door ride with DC plates.
The following afternoon, third-district officers showed up at the same strip mall to investigate an armed robbery at the Summit Hill Valet Dry Cleaners. According to a PD press statement, three suspects entered the store with their faces covered. One flashed a piece and demanded cash. Once the employee gave up the money, the three suspects took off in an older green ride with Maryland tags.
Then on Friday night, shit just went crazy. Cops working the Mount Rainier beat in Prince George’s County spotted a 1995 green Mercury Marquis with Maryland tags. That description matched the getaway car in the dry cleaner holdup and another robbery in Takoma Park.
When PG County police officers tried to pull the car over, it took off into The District. That’s when the green Mercury slammed into a Metropolitan PD cruiser, somewhere along the 4000 block of South Dakota Avenue.
The car’s four occupants took off on foot, but DC police were able to snag the driver, 16-year-old Delonte Richardson, of the 900 block of Emerson Street in Northwest. They also busted 18-year-old Earl Morton, of the 900 block of Whaler Place in Southeast, according to another press statement.
Cops didn’t catch two other dudes riding in the car. Both were described as black men in their late teens or early twenties, one skinny and the other with a medium build.
Suspects Richardson and Morton are in the custody of the Metropolitan PD, but Montgomery County has issued warrants accusing each with an assload of crimes: armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, use of a handgun in the commission of a felony, first-degree assault, and theft of less than $500.
MoCo investigators aren’t totally sure if these suspects had anything to do with Thursday’s holdup at the mini-mart, but they’re looking into it. Any tips? Holler at the PD: (240) 773-5100. Callers may remain anonymous.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user woodleywonderworks.
The Purple Line
Read The Penguin's coverage of a mass-transit project that might roll through downtown Silver Spring.
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Maryland Politics
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