Donations for cop's kin stolen

Hero cop Chuck Cassidy was disrespected in death twice last weekend, when donation containers for his family were stolen from two area businesses, police said.

About 3 a.m. Friday at the same West Oak Lane Dunkin' Donuts where Cassidy was murdered in late October, a middle-age man climbed through the drive-through window of the shop, Broad Street near 66th Avenue, and took a container containing donations for Cassidy's family off the counter.

"Once he took the jar, he climbed back out through the window and fled the area," said police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore.

"It was obvious what it was," Vanore said of the collection container, which had Cassidy's picture on it.

The next day, at a Wawa on Tyson Avenue near Roosevelt Boulevard in the Northeast, a man and a woman stayed in the store up to two hours,departing with a jug of donations for Cassidy's family, Vanore said.

"At one point, the man approached the counter and cut the string that secured the jug to the counter. About a minute later, he grabbed the jug and left the store with the woman," Vanore said.

The jug had about $100 in it, he said. The man is described as 25 to 30 years old, about 5 feet 5, 160 pounds, and wearing a Yankees baseball hat.

The woman is described as about 5 feet 4, wearing a red jacket with black and white stripes going down the sleeves, a baby-blue scarf, black pants and shoes, and carrying a white and gray purse, police said.

Inspector Joe Sullivan, who went through the Police Academy with Cassidy and spent the early part of his career with him in the 39th District, at 22nd and Hunting Park, said yesterday, "I don't think that you could be more disrespectful than to desecrate the place where Chuck gave his life for the city of Philadelphia, where his wife lost her husband and where his children lost their father, all for a measly $25-$30.

"The upside to this, however, is that the response once again from the community has been overwhelming.

"We view this as the individual action of a lost miscreant which in no way reflects the community that once again has been so supportive. For that reason, we are again grateful," he said. *