Police: Teens may be connected to Delco carjackings

UPPER DARBY, Pa. (WPVI) -- Police are trying to connect a group of teens, one as young as 13, to a carjacking spree in Delaware County.

Officers recovered a .22 caliber rifle, a costume mask and a black ski mask after the teens were stopped at around 2:30 a.m. on October 7 along Fairview Ave. and Lennox Road in Upper Darby.

Police say a 17-year-old and a 15-year-old had some of the items, while the 13-year-old had the unloaded gun hidden in his pant leg.

"You know they were getting ready to stick up somebody," said Superintendent Michael Chitwood of Upper Darby Police.

Police were targeting the location where the teens were stopped because there had been two carjackings and an attempted one, all just blocks apart. While none of the victims were seriously hurt, one victim barely escaped with her life.

"She struggles with them. One of the males puts a gun...to her neck, clicks it and fires it and there is no action. She falls down because she is scared to death and they run," Chitwood said.

Detectives have not yet been able to connect the teens taken into custody to the recent crimes but are using DNA and other investigative tools to determine if they are responsible.

However, Superintendent Chitwood is convinced they are guilty.

"These guys were not stopping, whether they beat them to death or scared them to death, these guys were not stopping. I mean they did three and they are back for a fourth one when they get caught by police," he said.

Upper Darby residents, like Angele Clark, are alarmed by the news of violence so close to home and are hoping to see security increased in the area.

"I am scared, I am scared about living here now because you don't know who to trust," Clark said.

Chitwood wants parents to do a better job of supervising their kids and says in some cases, he would like to see them held accountable legally for the actions of their kids.

"The thing that bothers me the most is the victims have no rights here. These gangsters, these hoodlums, these thugs have all the rights in the world. We can't talk to them unless someone gives the okay and in this particular case, if I could lock up the parents or guardians I would," he said.

Police say none of the parents involved are cooperating.

Investigators say two more teenagers were taken into custody in Philadelphia, with one of the carjacked vehicles.