Escort drivers help police catch suspects

Sometimes it seems as if there are Penn Escort vans everywhere. And on the night of March 9, three drivers helped track and catch two alleged armed robbers, Robert Harris and Damon Glenn, both of Philadelphia. "You would have thought they went to the police academy," University Police Lieutenant Susan Holmes said. "They did heads up police work." It all started at about 11:38 p.m. The men allegedly robbed two Drexel University students at gunpoint of $49 at 36th and Sansom streets. The students saw an Escort van parked in front of Graduate Tower A and ran to the driver of the van to ask for help. College of General Studies student John Saunders was the Escort driver. "I had just dropped off a couple of students at Grad A and I was facing Sansom Street and a guy and a girl came up and said that they had just been robbed," Saunders said. "I radioed dispatch and gave a description of the assailants and the direction they took off in." "He gave me the description of the robber over the radio while I was on the phone with University Police," said Escort Operations Supervisor Takeo Takahashi. As Saunders transmitted the description, all Escort drivers could hear it on their radios, which are installed in all the vans. Takahashi said one of the males, who wielded a gun, wore a distinctive green shirt with a picture of Sylvester the Cat on it. Escort driver Amy Schmidt was the next driver to see the men running up Walnut Street, near 38th Street. "I had a bunch of people in my van," the Nursing sophomore said. "Like eight people saw it too. I called in and said that I saw him heading toward the high rises. "I remember seeing the gun," she added. "And I remember someone telling me to not go near him. It was really scary." And according to University Police, the men then robbed a University student on Walnut Street en route to Super Block. Once entering Super Block, Escort driver Phillip Wilson saw the men again near High Rise East. And soon after, University Police apprehended the men. "This all happened in the course of five minutes," Takahashi said. Some of the drivers are now more cynical about their community. "Working at Escort, I've learned what a bad place West Philadelphia is to live in," Schmidt said. "Escort is a long thing to wait for, but it's better than getting robbed, or shot, or mugged. The inconvenience is worth it."