I'm glad at least some of these perps were caught, and I hope the rest of them will end up getting they deserve as well - and Asian American shopkeepers and business owners - make sure to heed the warnings of District Attorney G. Michael Green when carrying cash (and do I need to go into my conceal and carry rant again?).
At the same time I just have to wonder - just a little - how this ring that has been targeting Asian Americans has been able to run free and clear for two years?
Was this information they just got (that the perps were targeting Asian Americans)? Weren't there any patterns before this that could have helped? When did the FBI actually get involved?
State and local authorities suspect that they've uncovered a shadowy organization that has been terrorizing Asian-Americans in Philadelphia and Delaware County with a series of gunpoint robberies and home invasions over the past two years.Be safe people.
Two Southwest Philadelphia men were charged yesterday with mugging a Middletown couple last weekend after the men tailed their Mercedes-Benz from the Springfield Mall to their home on Lenni Road.
"These guys were basically surfing for their victims on the highways here in Delaware County," said State Police Capt. David Young.
The county saw three similar cases this week - two in Marple Township and one in Collingdale Borough - involving Asian business owners, which prompted District Attorney G. Michael Green yesterday to sound the alarm.
"Business owners, and especially Asian and Asian-American shopkeepers, are advised to take care in the handling of cash," Green said. "It is suggested that shopkeepers vary their routines."
On Monday, three armed bandits broke into a home on Hampshire Drive in Marple and beat and robbed a man and his wife, who are in their mid-60s and own a business in West Philadelphia. Two nights later, a South Korean woman who had just closed her shop in Upper Darby was robbed outside of her Marple home of a briefcase filled with about $1,500 in cash. Police believe the victims were followed from their respective stores.
In Collingdale early yesterday, masked gunmen climbed into the apartment above the China Moon Restaurant on MacDade Boulevard where the restaurant owners live. An undetermined amount of money was stolen. One shot was fired, but no injuries were reported, said police Chief Robert Adams.
Read the article in full here.
