Poopers, bats and Truckzilla. Oh my.
The last few months have been undeniably strange for Prospect Park; the borough of around 6,400 residents has experienced a series of unfortunate events.
"I think we've just had a series of people making bad decisions, and they've all happened to be around the same time as one another," Prospect Park Police Chief David Madonna told DelcoNow.
First, there was the infamous 'Delco Pooper.' On April 29 in Prospect Park, Christina Solometo, 44, of Ridley Park, defecated on the hood of another vehicle in a road rage incident. The graphic video of the incident quickly went viral. Solometo was hit with a laundry list of charges, but the grin in her mugshot suggests she wasn't fazed.
Next, there was the baseball bat attacker. Brian Taylor, 35, of Prospect Park, walked into a gas station on July 8, asked a man he didn't know "where's my money," and started swinging a baseball bat at him.
Funnily enough, Taylor has been branded Delco Pooper No. 2, because while he was in a holding cell, he defecated in it. Tack on an "institutional vandalism" charge to his laundry list of offenses.
And now there's Truckzilla.
Tuesday morning, a tractor-trailer went on a rampage in a Prospect Park residential neighborhood. Police nicknamed the trailer "Truckzilla" due to the sheer amount of damage it caused.
Truckzilla ran over a stop sign, crushed some curbing, ruined part of someone's front lawn and took down some power lines. Five blocks from the initial scene, the truck tore down a PECO utility pole.
Madonna partially attributed the events to the influx of people who travel through Prospect Park in the summertime. Over the course of a month, over a million vehicles travel through Prospect Park via Route 420 and Chester Pike.
Even though the borough's name has been appearing in the news recently, Madonna said these incidents aren't a statement on the health of Prospect Park or its public safety.
"It's a great town. It's a town where you can walk around, explore the community, join in community events. So although we've had this cluster, this is not something I expect to be the norm here," Madonna said.
Madonna said these out-of-the-box events can't always be helped, but his police department's response to the incidents is a great source of pride.
"One of the things I'm most proud of is that although we can't stop everything from taking place, we have solved or had successful resolutions with all these incidents that we've been dealing with," Madonna said.
"So I'm very proud of the police department, and I'm very thankful for the community for always stepping up and getting involved."
In the wake of this string of unprecedented events, Madonna's message to the residents of Prospect Park, to the community he protects, is simple.
"You live in an ultra-safe community," he said.
"Although we've had a series of events here, when you compare our crime to those of similar size towns and other parts of the country, you are well protected here. It is safe. Enjoy the community. It's one of the safest that I've had the pleasure of working and dealing with."
