Forget the burglar!! Get the speeders!!

 

This picture is of a house in the Highland Park section of Upper Darby Twp. It is an advertisement for a builder. I'm looking for an address. Thanks

Note: As a retired police officer it is hard to imagine police work in Delco 100 years ago. Police walked on foot patrol and no department had cars till the mid/late 1920's. A number of foot patrol police officers were struck by cars and killed while directing traffic or trying to enforce vehicle laws. The chief of Norwood was killed on Chester Pike while trying to stop a speeder for example. Speeders and other traffic law violators were considered criminals and every effort was made to stop them and ticket them. It was common for police then to flag a motorist down and ask him to chase a car with them as a passenger.

CHESTER TIMES 

 March 26, 1923 

 BRAVE POLICEMAN FIGHTS SPEEDERS 

 Uses His Gun When They Refuse to Stop and Three Are Caught

          Hanging from the running board of a speeding automobile, Officer T. J. Bradley of the Upper Darby police, riddled the rear tires and gasoline tank with bullets, commandeered another machine, gave chase and was instrumental in the round up of the car’s occupants when it turned turtle at Sixty-Third and Spruce Streets, Saturday afternoon.  Three men were caught.  They gave their names as Albert Flemming, Martin Rosengarten and William Cushion, all of Philadelphia.

          It was 2:30 o’clock Saturday afternoon that Bradley noticed a high-powered automobile racing south on Church Lane near the Baltimore Pike, Fernwood.  The car was traveling at lightning speed.  Five men were seated in it.

          Bradley took the number and two hours later while doing traffic duty he jumped in the car on the return trip.  He threw the semaphore against the driver.  Instead of heeding the command to stop the man at the wheel added on more speed and piloted his car directly towards the bluecoat.

          The officer jumped upon the running board as the car shot by.  Instead of following his command to slow down, the driver increased the speed.  Several squares away he made a sharp turn with the result that Bradley was thrown into the roadway.

          No sooner had he landed in a heap than Bradley opened fire on the fast, disappearing car.  The first shot went wild of its mark.  The second entered the right rear tire.  The car swerved.  Before the driver had righted it the other tire was flat from a bullet.  Then for good measure Bradley shot several holes in the gasoline tank.

          Attracted by the shots Martin McLaughlin arrived in his car.  The officer jumped in and urged him to “step on it.”  Then came the chase that carried the pursuing car through Cardington.  At Sixty-Third and Spruce streets they found a crowd.  The speeding automobile had overturned.  When an unidentified Negro attempted to capture the driver the man whipped out a gun and fired several shots.

          Bradley, McLaughlin and Philadelphia police joined in the chase and were successful in bagging them of the fleeing forms.  A check-up of the license tag revealed the wrecked automobile to be the property of R. B. Harvey of Abbington. The police say it was stolen early Saturday morning.

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Ridley Creek State Park 50th anniversary booklet still a few copies left