Crime & Safety

Brothel in the 'Burbs, Illegal Eel Harvest Top Weird Crime News

Also, it pays to remember to renew your license and registration on time.

Each week, Patch combs through the more shocking, surprising and often absurd alleged criminal acts and police-related incidents that unfold around the region. Here’s what went on last week for “OMG PD.”

Don’t forget to stop at the DMV: Expired tags and no documentation were the least of the worries for an Oaklyn woman who was stopped in Collingswood, police said. When Shannon Becknell, 28, got out of her car, a glass pipe typically used to smoke marijuana fell out of her pant leg, and officers found heroin and crack cocaine during a search, police said.

No word on what his high game was: Haddon Township resident Boris Mihov threw a major gutter ball when he allegedly tried to burglarize the vacant Baker Lanes bowling alley on March 13. A passerby alerted Cherry Hill Police, who found Mihov hiding inside not long after the report.

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Not as slippery as the eels they caught: State Fish and Wildlife officers caught three Maine men with more than nine pounds of juvenile eels in what they say was an illegal harvesting operation along the Absecon Creek. Amounting to roughly 24,000 individual eels, the harvest could’ve netted Robert L. Royce, 65, of Hope, ME, Neal V. Kenney III, 53, of Thomaston, ME, and Dale B. Witham, 54, of Medomak, ME, close to $25,000 on the black market, authorities said.

Memo to the Classes of 2014, 2015, 2016 …: Vandals tagged two buildings and the football stadium in Haddonfield with four digits—2013. Police didn’t offer any clues as to the culprits, but we’re pretty sure you can do the math.

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Brothel in the ‘burbs: Michael Clarke had a different kind of home office on Oak Avenue, according to Cherry Hill Police. Clarke, who advertised hookers on various websites, was running a house of prostitution under his own roof, frequently bringing women and johns for trysts in the neighborhood, according to police. Neighbors, who brought the situation to the authorities, said it was no secret as to what was going on at the end of the block.

A flood of copper thefts: Want an easy way to figure out if that vacant house next door has been hit by scrap metal thieves? Your neighborhood starts flooding. Maple Shade Police said the incident on Germantown Avenue was at least the ninth this year—though the first one where an artificial river sprung up.


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