Burglaries in Cheltenham Township

[wollstonecraft]

I live in Cheltenham Township, just south of Township Line Road, east of Old York Road.

Last Wednesday night I was at home and heard a knock on my back door. I'd had the blinds down. When I got to the door and turned on the porch light and looked outside, the person had run away, so I called the police.

The officer who arrived was courteous, but he made light of it when I told him what happened. At first he said, they probably tried your front door, and when you didn't hear them, they went to your back door. Oh, I asked, then why did they run away when I arrived at the back door? He didn't have an answer for that. He then said, oh, nothing goes on around here. There's nothing going on tonight. But wait a minute, I said. There's someone going around the neighborhood looking for an unoccupied house they can burgle in the dark, when they won't be so easily noticed. No, the officer repeated, there's nothing going on. I thought, okay, if a nearby house is burgled, at least I notified the police that they tried my house first.

This morning I saw a story on NBC 10 reporting that five houses within two days have been burglarized in Cheltenham Township.

If you live in these parts, be alert.

[MuscleHead]

It's a good thing the police took you seriously.

[theWatusi]

Did the police officer ask you for your birthdate?

[MuscleHead]

Cheltenham, Pa. police are asking for help from the public as they try to solve a series of home burglaries -- five of them in a span of about eight hours over this past weekend.

Police believe the break-ins are all related because they occurred in a short period of time and in close proximity to each other, in the Elkins Park and Melrose Park sections of the township.

Police chief John Norris says the suspects used a variety of means to get into the unoccupied houses, Saturday night and early Sunday morning:

"One was a ladder to the second floor. Another was gained through an unlocked door. A rear basement door was broken into, and in one they removed an air conditioner.”

He says numerous valuables were taken including jewelry, cash, collectible coins and stamps, a flat-screen TV, and two guns.

The houses are in the 1200 block of Ashbourne Road, the 7600 block of Lafayette Avenue, the 8200 block of Jenkintown Road, and the 7400 block of Elizabeth Road.

Police are hoping that someone may have seen or heard something that will provide them with the clues they need to solve the crimes.

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