3 Temple University students robbed in off-campus break-in

PHILADELPHIA >> Philadelphia police say three Temple University students have been robbed by armed intruders who broke into their off-campus home.

Police believe the two suspects got into the home through an unlocked kitchen window about 1 a.m. Wednesday.

The students told police the robbers had a gun and a knife and forced them to lie on the floor while they were robbed.

The suspects stole cellphones, laptop computers, tablet computers, debit cards and some cash.

The students were then forced into the basement of the home before the suspects escaped. The students weren’t injured. One pulled a fire alarm to summon emergency responders after the robbery.

Parents of girl who ingested meth charged with endangerment

PINE GROVE >> Parents of a toddler who ingested methamphetamine in their Pennsylvania home have been jailed on child endangerment and other charges.

State police on Tuesday filed the charges against 26-year-old John Kemmerer and 24-year-old Leanne Popp.

The Schuylkill County couple’s 22-month-old daughter consumed some of the highly addictive, illegal stimulant Sunday morning at their home in Wayne Township.

The girl has been treated at Lehigh Valley Hospital near Allentown, where her condition has not been released.

The couple also faces charges including aggravated assault of a dependent, drug possession, simple assault and reckless endangerment.

Online court records don’t list attorneys for the couple.

Police: Man hid in closet, then attacked estranged wife, man

HATFIELD >> Authorities allege that a man hid in the closet of a suburban Philadelphia home and later emerged and attacked his estranged wife and her boyfriend.

Hatfield Township police Wednesday announced the arrest of 36-year-old Jason William Beck of Norristown on charges including aggravated assault, burglary, trespass and terroristic threats.

Authorities allege that he broke in Monday, hid in a master bedroom closet, waited until the two victims returned and went to bed, and then emerged and sprayed mace, stabbed and beat one with a baseball bat and also assaulted his estranged wife. Both were treated at a hospital. Three children who were home at the time weren’t harmed.

Court documents indicated that Beck requested representation by the Montgomery County public defender’s office, which said no attorney had yet been assigned.

Contractor bans foul language at school’s construction site

PHILADELPHIA >> Foul language is being discouraged at one construction site in Philadelphia.

WTXF-TV reports a sign saying “No Foul Language” has been spotted at the site of the new library being built on the Temple University campus.

The station asked about the sign and was told nobody complained about bad language. Instead, Madison Construction says it put up the sign so workers will keep it clean around the students and anybody else who happens by.

Contractor David Buehler says the company has meetings about workplace safety, and that avoiding cursing is also emphasized.

Daycare worker charged with abusing 5-month-old baby

GLENSHAW >> A 19-year-old worker has been charged with physically abusing a 5-month-old baby at a church-run daycare center near Pittsburgh.

Julia Spencer, of Hampton Township, was arrested Tuesday night on aggravated assault, child endangerment and intimidation charges. She doesn’t have an attorney.

Shaler Township police say surveillance video shows her abusing the boy Monday at the Glenshaw Presbyterian Early Learning Center.

Police say Spencer pulled the boy roughly from a swing, pushed him into a bouncy chair, and tried to yank him out by his arms before slamming him into a crib. The boy’s parents took him to a hospital emergency room for bruises, redness and swelling to his head, neck and shoulders.

Man killed in fire didn’t live in vacant home where found

PLYMOUTH >> A man found dead in a house fire in northeastern Pennsylvania didn’t live there, and authorities aren’t sure why he was in the vacant structure.

Twenty-four-year-old William Paterson had another address in Plymouth, a borough about 20 miles (32.2 kilometers) southwest of Scranton.

But he was found dead in the upstairs of the vacant home, also in Plymouth, after the fire was reported about 1:45 a.m. Tuesday.

Court records show Paterson was due in court for a preliminary hearing at 9 a.m. that day on assault, harassment and public drunkenness charges stemming from a bar fight in October.

State police fire marshals were investigating the blaze.

The home’s owner, Rafael Grullon, says he bought the building at a tax sale in January and doesn’t know Paterson or how he got inside.

Purse snatcher tells judge he changed mind when woman fell

EASTON >> A down-and-out Pennsylvania purse snatcher told a judge he changed his mind halfway through the crime, and was sentenced to time he’s served in jail since the aborted January robbery.

Sixty-year-old Steven Dowling told a Northampton County judge on Tuesday that the woman fell because she pulled on her purse and he let her keep it, saying, “I kind of hit me right then: ‘I’m not doing this.’”

The Upper Black Eddy man says he was too broke to pay his bills and too proud to ask his family for money before he tried to steal the purse, telling the judge, “It was something stupid to do from being cold and hungry.”

Philadelphia’s parking app shut down over vendor’s problems

PHILADELPHIA >> The Philadelphia Parking Authority says motorists will no longer be able to use its MeterUp smartphone app to pay for parking meters.

The authority says that’s because the vendor behind the app, Pango USA, is having trouble paying its bills.

Philly.com reports that Pango got the authority contract charging only a cent per transaction, much less than the 20 cents or more similar vendors offered.

A company called Parking By Phone bought out Pango in October and has been unable to salvage the app.

The parking authority says Pango abruptly closed its Philadelphia office about two weeks ago and had fallen behind in paying revenue to the authority.

About 20,000 people were using the app, which was generating about $15,000 daily for the parking authority.

Man heads to jail for stalking college student and burglary

LANCASTER >> A Pennsylvania man will spend up to six years in prison for stalking a college student and burglarizing the home of another student.

LNP reports 24-yearold Tyler Lee, of Lancaster, pleaded guilty to several charges included burglary and stalking. Police say Lee stalked a female Franklin & Marshall College student at her home in June and July before attempting to break in. Authorities say Lee also stole electronics and personal items from another student’s home in July.

Police say Lee admitted to having violent thoughts about sorority girls and was found with a crow bar when he was arrested.

Pennsylvania identity theft suspect tripped by Ancestry.com

PITTSBURGH >> Federal prosecutors say a Pennsylvania man who assumed the identity of a baby who died in Texas in 1972 has been arrested on charges of Social Security fraud and identity theft after the baby’s mother discovered the ruse on Ancestry.com.

Forty-four-year-old Jon Vincent was arrested in Lansdale, near Philadelphia, on Monday, but had also lived near Pittsburgh and York, Pennsylvania since 2003 — after first obtaining a Social Security card in the name Nathan Laskoski in 1996.

Prosecutors say that’s when Vincent stole the dead child’s identity after escaping from a Texas halfway house to start another life.

Federal prosecutors say he’s also lived in Mississippi and Tennessee under his assumed name, holding jobs, getting drivers’ licenses and even getting married and divorced as Laskoski.