Rap Sheet

It wasn't anything you’d see from the television show CSI. There were no infrared lights used
to detect tiny droplets of blood. The phenomena of DNA analysis was non-existent. The way
Southwest Detectives, aided by University of Pennsylvania Police, nailed (no pun intended) the
"Screwdriver Bandit" was "good old-fashioned police work."

"It was straight old school," Southwest Det. Joe Murray, lead detective in the case, told me tonight. "That was the thing about this job. It wasn't anything fancy that got him. It was driven by the paperwork."

Murray said he ran all vehicles impounded within the time frame of the Screwdriver bandit’s robberies. He then cross-referenced them with any corresponding arrests. He then attempted to match the description of the vehicles with the one believed to have been spotted on convenience store surveillance footage, which captured the suspect a few miles from one of the robberies.

Interestingly enough, a man arrested for assaulting a police officer after cops attempted to make a routine traffic stop in November - an incident totally unrelated to the screwdriver ordeal - was allegedly the driver of an impounded car that matched the description of the one viewed in the surveillance footage. So, he and his University of Pennsylvania Police colleagues, started the investigation inside the system and worked their way out. Pretty cool.

Det. Murray told me that as soon as police wrap up some loose ends, they expect to charge him with at least three of the eight robberies before the weekend is up.

Even with the many dead-ends that come with chasing a ghost for about a month, Det. Murray
said he held true to his suspicions that the bandit was likely in jail because he hadn't
attacked in weeks.

Of course, Murray had his skeptics.

Some of his colleagues were convinced and tried to convince him that the reason the bandit hadn’t robbed his next victim was because he was probably taking a sabbatical for the holiday season.

I’m not making this up.

I don't have an opinion one way or the other about the pending trade of Sixer's guard Allen Iverson other than the fact that the man can play some b-ball. But I took an unofficial poll of some of the cops here at the Round House and at a few random districts. I found it suprising that all but one are happy to see him go.

"He's a hoodlum, a thug" proclaimed one police officer. Another one of Philly's finest said, "He doesn't make our lives any easier as cops. He thinks he can drive a thousand miles an hour down City Avenue and that no one is supposed to say anything to him." Another officer commented how disgusted she was when he allegedly turned down a young fan looking to get his autograph at TGI Fridays.

But AI has his share of loyal followers, including one officer who said simply, "folks are scared of people who speak their minds, who aren't afraid to be an individual," she said.

It's no secret that Mr. Iverson has had some brushes with the law. The above mug shot was taken of AI in 2002 when he was charged with assault and accused of forcing his way into an apartment with a gun and threatening two men while looking for his wife. But does that make him a bad guy? I don't think so, but some cops think it does and many are all too happy to see him leave.

This might be one of those times where one of his most famous quotes - now used on a poster with his likeness endorsing Reebok - might come in handy for him, "There's gonna be a million people that love Allen Iverson. There's gonna be a billion people that hate Allen Iverson. Concentrate on the ones that care about you and keep steppin."

Kristen's story about truancy is yet another affirmation that everything in life is somehow connected. How is this education writer's beat connected to a cop reporter's beat? Well, there is plenty of research to suggest that truants are three times more likely to commit a crime than non-truants. Take a look at this truancy study from the National Criminal Justice Reference Service. Hopefully, the kids who were made to attend Street's lecture don't end up in one of our articles. According to the research, unfortunately that is where many of them are headed.

What I found most interesting was listening to the children themselves. Click here to listen to what the kids had to say.

It's a well-known fact that First Deputy Commissioner Patricia Giorgio Fox has been battling cancer for about a half-dozen years.

Although she's petite, she's one tough cookie - not having missed a day of work while undergoing her treatments early in her diagnoses. But I learned Friday night that "The Fox", as Barb and I call her, will be out for a while undergoing more aggressive treatments.

We wish you luck and a speedy recovery, Commissioner. Now all we've got to do is get you to stop smoking.

In case you didn't know, the Commissioner has a radio show on WURD AM titled "TOP COP". The Commissioner discusses all things cops - from crime to jobs. If you can get through on the phone lines, this is your opportunity to speak directly with the Commish. He's on tomorrow and every Wednesday from 5 to 6 p.m.

As of this moment, Homicide Lt. Walt Bell said that there was still no arrest in the apparent murder of Monica Smith - the 37-year-old wheelchair bound grandmother found shot to death inside her North Philadelphia home this week. As I watched Smith's distraught family mill about outside her home on N. 22nd Street, I couldn't help but feel sympathetic to their loss. I suspect it is a terrible feeling to lose someone you love and equally as hurtful to lose them to murder.

But what if they were handicapped?

The question many of us have is who could kill a disabled woman with one leg? But the more interesting question is, "Why?" We'll keep on top of this case to keep you posted on any latest developments.

I was only out for two days last week, but it seems much longer considering the mayhem that unfolded in the short time that I was nursing a cold rather than tracking the latest crime.

What happened?

Six people were killed in three days.

Three students were robbed near St. Joe's U ... two of them shot.

A gunman opened fire at Dilworth Plaza in Center City.

(read more here)

Monday, a woman confined to a wheelchair was found murdered in her home.

I returned to total madness. What gives?

Must have been a full moon. ... No. It was a half moon. The next full moon rises next week.

It's more like Jerry Seinfeld's World of Bizarro where seemingly safe places turned to chaos and the oridinary things in this bipolar city unfolded in extraordinary ways. It wasn't just a crime thing. Even the Eagles pulled a win on Sunday.

OK, we can live with that madness. The rest of the madness has to go. It's making me sick.

Philadelphia firefighter Ray Rios was in the hot seat when he appeared on national TV Thursday afternoon.

If you didn't catch it, Rios appeared as a contestant for "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" with Meredith Vieira. Since 1985, Rios has been fighting fires in Philly. When he came under fire by Vieira, he was cool as could be.

He flashed his bright smile, laughed at the jokes and graciously went through the questions. His 18-year-old daughter, also with a dazzling smile, watched dad from the audience. Any money he won, he said, was to pay for her college. She wants to be a pediatrician.

So how did dad do? Pretty good. He had $50,000 locked away when Vieira asked what conservative South American country did not legalize divorce until 1994? With no lifelines and no clue what the answer was, Rios decided to walk.

The answer: Chile.

It's tough being single.

I could actually end the blog right here, but you didn't log on to read my personal tragedies.

As a single woman dating in Philadelphia, the story my colleague Natalie Pompilio wrote from yesterday's preliminary hearing about the rape charges Jeffrey Marsalis is facing was horrifying. All us single gals really want is a nice guy to take us out for an occasional meal and someone with a "Y" chromosome to talk with. (No offense, Barb) Apparently, that's even too much to ask for these days. To all my single women out there: Please read this story and proceed with caution. As in any criminal trial, the defendant is innocent until proven guilty, but just in case, take a lesson from the plaintiffs. Whether you meet a young man in person or on the Internet, always use common sense and always trust your gut instinct.

Officer Elizabeth Skala, a six-year vet who worked the beat in Center City before joining the Public Affairs Unit earlier this year is back on the job.

Skala went off the week before Labor Day, resting before the Sept. 5 debut of her daughter, Grace. She labored more than 12 hours, with no overtime, until the little one arrived at 7 pounds, 3 ounces.

It wasn’t that long ago when women weren’t allowed to walk the beat.

In the 1970s, a plan to hire the first female beat officers led to the creation of a protest group called, Police Wives and Interested Citizens for Action.

Among concerns were whether a woman could carry a 200-pound man from a burning building and, as one policeman’s wife observed at a meeting: “What’s going to happen after he’s spent all night with this woman who’s all doozied up and then he comes home and we won’t have any makeup on?”

More than 30 years later … women make up 25 percent of the force with the No. 2 position held by Deputy Commissioner Patricia Giorgio-Fox, the highest rank ever held by a woman.

It’s unclear how many of those women are pistol-packing mamas or how many can carry a 200-pound man from a burning building. It’s also unclear how many of the men can actually carry a 200-pound man from a burning building.