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2_12_14januarycrimetrendsonlinegraphic

The robbery of an Insomnia Cookies truck was one of the 71 crimes reported in the Penn Patrol Zone last month.

Total crime for the month in the Penn Patrol Zone — which spans east to west from 30th to 43rd streets, and north to south from Market Street to Baltimore Avenue — dropped by one incident from 72 in January 2013.

Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said the overall statistics for the month of January 2014 were fairly average. “It’s been a pretty flat month,” Rush said.

In addition to the Insomnia Cookies truck robbery, the PNC Bank at 35th and Market streets was robbed by a suspect who issued a note threatening to shoot. However, he did not show a weapon, Rush said.

The suspect was subsequently arrested within a half block of the establishment, making the PNC Bank incident one of three robberies which resulted in an arrest.

Theft from automobiles rose by 12 incidents as compared to January of last year. Rush noted that the jump in incidents of this type last month was consistent with a larger trend relating to thefts from auto that carried over from the end of 2013.

However, the Division of Public Safety said the number of thefts from auto has tapered off significantly since the start of February. Although this decrease follows the creation of a theft from auto task force last month, DPS said it is too soon to determine whether the force can be credited with the drop in crime.

Last month also saw zero reported forcible sex offenses, as compared to the four which were reported in January of last year.

“It is hard to predict how forcible sex offenses will be reported,” Rush explained. “Just because the number is zero, can we say nothing happened? We can’t really say that.”

Theft from buildings dropped last month by 15 incidents from the previous January, for a total of 27. Rush attributed this drop to the success of DPS’ Operation Building Safe campaign, along with the cooperation of the Penn community.

January 2014 also saw seven bike thefts, three more than the total from last year at this time.

In comparison to statistics for the month of January 2013, crimes against property decreased by one incident last month — from 63 to 62 — and the total for crimes against person remained the same for both months, with eight occurrences overall.

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