Gunshots in the Millville Arts District

In today's police blotter, this disturbing news:

Police were dispatched to the 500 block of North 2nd Street Saturday afternoon on a report of gunfire, but found no evidence to support the report.

Two witnesses did report hearing gunshots, though. One claimed there were four to five gunshots, while the other reported hearing five or six.

Police recovered a purple and silver Schwinn mountain bike in the area that may have been connected to the gunfire.

Big time gangsta - got his Glock and a stolen Schwinn!

Millville Code Enforcement out in force

The Atlantic City Press ran an article over the weekend about the efforts of Millville Code Enforcement to crack down on nuisance and derelict properties.

It has been more than a year since the city started cracking down on code violations in its oldest neighborhoods, and it doesn't plan on stopping anytime soon.

In a recent sweep, the city's inspection department, along with Revenue Allocation District personnel, split into teams and walked every block in the area between High and 10th streets, known as center city, looking for code violations and writing citations for every one they found.
In total, the city wrote 106 citations over two days - for everything from trash and loose debris in people's yards to serious structural issues with their homes - Public Works Director Dale Finch said.

In the upcoming weeks, they will do the same in the South Millville and Third Ward neighborhoods

"The inspectors are targeting specific neighborhoods," Finch said. "They're parking their cars and getting out and walking the neighborhood. They walked two days through center city.
"We're being aggressive in citing people that are not keeping up to code."

This effort is just one part of a multi-faceted attack to tack back our neighborhoods. Code enforcement personnel help to persuade landlords and tenants alike to keep their properties maintained. Sgt. Farabella  targets criminal activity and weeds out the worst of the worst.

But the rest is up to the residents of the neighborhoods. We must be vigilant. We need to forge relationships with our neighbors, to look out for one another, and to report any and all suspicious activity to the police.

Call 825-3111 for Millville Police Dispatch. Give them an address and description of the nuisance or criminal activity. It is vital to do this EVERY time you witness nuisance activity. And you may politely refuse to provide your name and address to the police dispatcher, if asked. They will not push for the info, even though it remains confidential. the important thing is to make sure that you provide the street address of the nuisance, if you want to ensure that action is able to be taken to abate it.

Race fan robbed at gunpoint

A Virginia man, here for the races at the NJMP was robbed at gun point in center city.

A Virginia man in town for a weekend race at the New Jersey Motorsports Park claims he was robbed at gunpoint on Saturday.

Martin Coberly, 19, Richmond, was following directions to the motorsports park when he stopped at a red light at the intersection of High and Broad streets.

While he was stopped, the Virginia man claimed to have been approached by a black male in his 40s, who demanded Coberly's wallet. The man had a black gun tucked away in his waist band.

Coberly gave up his wallet. The man took $33 from it and gave the wallet back before fleeing the scene.

Something just doesn't seem right with this story. If a person walks up to me with a gun, and I am in a vehicle, I am just going to run the red light and haul ass.

Was the guy with the gun a member of Track Racket?

Home invasion

The News of Cumberland County reported this disturbing incident:

Two men - one described as being of Middle Eastern descent, the other white - stormed an Alex Drive home on Saturday, with one of them waving a gun, according to police.

Millville police who responded to the scene were greeted by the victim, who stated he was the only one home. He told police he was changing a tire when a Mitsubishi drove up and the two suspects exited the car.

The two men were yelling, and one had a gun. The victim began to run and the suspects chased after him.

Shotgun shooting at 2nd and Broad

I heard talk about this story Thursday evening, and here is the report. There was a shooting on N. 2nd St., near Broad St.

Officers were dispatched to the area of North 2nd and Broad streets for reports of shots fired. Witnesses said they observed a man firing at a dark-colored vehicle. The driver fled, taking the car southbound on Route 47.
The gunman reportedly fled on foot in an unknown direction.
Police at the scene of the shooting were later greeted by the driver of the vehicle, who said he was stopped at the intersection of 2nd and Broad streets when his car was struck by gun fire.
According to police, the vehicle appeared to have been hit with a single shotgun blast.

At present it appears the driver was an "innocent victim".  If so, this would be a peculiar turn, as almost all shootings involve parties that are known to each other.

Slumlords do nothing to help turn the tide

Vineland Realtor Dennis Ingraldi owns 105 N. 4th Street, among other properties in Millville neighborhoods. his name constantly appears on nuisance lists. His property at 410 Broad Street is a hideous atrocity. he does absolutely nothing to enhance the street appearance of the slums he rents, and then he probably wonders why he can't get a higher class of renter.

For instance, renters at 401 Broad gutted the interior of the house, making it unfit for human habitation according to a health inspector. When he does get decent tenants, they are forced to live in unhealthy conditions, such as was the case with a house he had on S. 3rd street, where he allowed pigeons to inhabit the space above the drop ceiling. The extreme weight of the pigeon defecation finally caused the drop ceiling to collapse on the childrens bed beneath.

The current problem house is an all-night drug store at 105 S. 4th st. One afternoon last week I was driving down Pine St. when one of Millville's working girls propositioned me. As I turned the corner, I immediately called MPD dispatch.

The police arrived too late, as the girl had apparently found a John in the few minutes it took the cops to arrive. how do I know? I arrived home, and who do I see stepping out of a car at 6th and Sassafras, and heading down the street? You guessed.

And where did she go? You are GOOD! She went to the upstairs apartment at Ingraldi's slum tenement. This apartment has foot traffic all day and all night, and I am seeing a lot of new faces on the street since they opened the drug store a few weeks ago.

It has gotten so bad that I am now forced to bring the video camera out of storage and begin filming. I have worked five years to clean up this street, and now Ingraldi with his slum house is creating a dangerous situation, attracting drug addict who are now hanging out where little children play.

I would have more empathy if Ingraldi indicated even the smallest amount of interest in actually fixing up the properties he rents. I have to give credit where it is due, and even Paul Porreca Jr. rents out to mostly decent tenants, doesn't allow nuisance activity on his properties, and gives them a decent face-lift so that they are not the eyesore they could be. I wonder how Ingraldi would feel if one of these slums was located next to his house?

Teen pistol whipped in Millville

In today's news:

A city teen was robbed at gunpoint then pistol-whipped on the 700 block of East Pine Street early Saturday.

The victim reported his cell phone stolen in the robbery, which was called into police at about 2 a.m.

One question. What was a teen doing walking the streets at 2AM? Why wasn't the 17 year old taken into custody and arrested for curfew violations? There is more to this story than can be told in the single paragraph the newspaper gave it.