Police Blotter: Merion Hit With Burglary and Thefts

Merion Station was home to recent uptick in crime throughout the area over the last week, according to the Lower Merion Police Department.

One Merion home was burglarized on Feb. 25, police said, jewelry was taken while the residents were still in the home. Police also reported the theft of about $500 worth of copper downspouts from a Merion neighborhood carriage house, and thefts from seven parked vehicles along the 200 block of Merion Road and the 300 block of Brookway Road..

The following information was provided by the Lower Merion Police Department.

Public drunkenness: Police said they found Nicole Smith, 25, of the 800 block of Turner Avenue in Drexel Hill, asleep in the passenger seat of a vehicle parked on Gray’s Lane in Haverford at 6:47 a.m. Feb. 21. Police responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle when they found Smith, and she was under the influence and that someone else had been driving the vehicle, police said.

Theft: Police said two copper downspouts were stolen from the east side of a carriage house on the 200 block of Linden Lane in Merion overnight between Feb. 21 and Feb. 22. Each copper downspout was worth $500, police said.

Burglary: Police said jewelry was stolen from a home on the 400 block of Levering Mill Road in Merion at 6:49 p.m. Feb. 25. Police said a resident of the house was in the basement and heard a noise on the first floor. The resident thought it was a family member moving around, but when the resident went upstairs they saw someone run through the house and jump out a first-floor window. The burglar had ransacked the bedroom and taken jewelry, police said, but it is unknown what was taken.

Theft from motor vehicles: Police said money was stolen from five vehicles parked on the 200 block of Merion Road overnight on Feb. 26. Police said $185 was stolen from one vehicle, $10 each from another two, $60 from another and $20 from the fifth car. Police said three cars were owned by the same family and two were owned by others. Police said all of the cars were parked in the rear of the house and the doors were unlocked.

Theft from motor vehicles: Police said two cars were entered on the 300 block of Brookway Road in Merion Station overnight on Feb. 26.  Police said $10 was stolen from one of the cars and that nothing was stolen from the other vehicle.

Public drunkenness: Police said they received a call of a person staggering in the roadway at the intersection of Conshohocken State Road and Rock Hill Road at 1:08 a.m. Feb. 27. Police said they arrested Vincent Collins, 21, of Gwynn Oak, Md., because he was intoxicated to the point he was a danger to himself. Police said Collins is a student at St. Joe’s University and that his blood-alcohol content was .22. Police said that while Collins was in the cell at the station, he urinated throughout the cell and damaged the cell by scraping paint off the walls. Police said Collins was charged with two counts of institutional vandalism. Police said Collins was unable to post $10,000 bail and is now in the Montgomery County Correctional Facility. Collins has a hearing on March 7, police said.

DUI: Police said an officer observed a vehicle headed south on City Avenue beginning to drift between lanes at 3:20 a.m. Feb. 27. Police said the driver’s breath smelled of alcohol and failed field sobriety tests. Police said the driver’s blood-alcohol content was .12 when he was brought back to headquarters, and charged Mario Oliva, 24, of Marion Court in Upper Darby, with driving under the influence.