Police have identified the man killed Tuesday in a motorcycle crash in Monroe County.
Tyler Megin, 21, of Henryville was killed in the crash on Cherry Lane Road in Pocono Township, near Henryville. Police have little information about the crash but believe it happened between 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m.
A passerby called police after seeing the crash scene near the Meadowbrook Riding Stables.
Cherry Lane was closed nearly two hours after the crash.
POCONO TOWNSHIP — Flames destroyed a home in Monroe County.
The fire broke out around 11:30 p.m. Sunday at the place on Summit Avenue, at Pocono Manor, in Pocono Township.
Firefighters said the house was for sale, and no one was inside at the time.
No one was hurt.
A state police fire marshal will try to figure out the cause.
POCONO TOWNSHIP — Police are on the lookout for a bank robber in Monroe County.
A man went into the Keystone Community bank in Swiftwater, handed the teller a note, got cash and took off in a yellow sedan, according to Pocono Township police.
It happened around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Police believe the man was between 18 to 25 years old.
He was last seen driving south on Route 611.
Anyone with information on the bank robbery should contact police in Monroe County.
POCONO TOWNSHIP — A smash-and-grab theft in Monroe County was caught on camera.
In surveillance video, the thief can be seen smashing a glass display case at Ultra Diamond Outlet at the Crossings Outlets in Tannersville.
It happened after 1 p.m. Wednesday.
After he grabs some Rolex watches, the man’s face is clearly visible on the tape.
Anyone who knows the man in this video is asked to call Pocono Township police at 570-629-7200.
POCONO TOWNSHIP — A retired FBI agent from Luzerne County is on a mission to honor law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty.
Jim Caverly from the Nanticoke area spent the summer bicycling from Oregon to Maine to raise money and awareness for a national organization called “Concerns of Police Survivors” also called COPS.
The group lends support to the families of fallen troopers.
The ex-agent stopped by state police barracks at Swiftwater Thursday to pay tribute to Trooper Joshua Miller who was gunned down after a chase in 2009.
“There’s a police officer killed about every 57 hours in this country. They figure 12 people come under that umbrella of traumatic grief, that horrible type of grief that accompanies that kind of a loss. So coming together is really pretty neat,” said Caverly.
For more information or to donate to COPS, click here.
POCONO TOWNSHIP — Traffic on Interstate 80 in the Poconos was backed up all day long after a fatal crash that happened in the early morning hours.
A little before 3:30 a.m., a tractor trailer carrying concrete slabs lost part of its load.
That load landed in the middle of the highway, causing four other vehicles to wreck and leaving one person dead.
“It’s a sad situation, a heck of a thing to come up on. But accidents do happen. It’s bad. Especially when something like this happens,” said Roy Carbaugh, a truck driver from Altoona.
According to state police and the coroner, a truck carrying concrete slabs lost some of its load after the straps holding down the slabs broke.
It’s a sight that disturbs Carbaugh, who also drives a tractor trailer and is hauling an oversize load of concrete slabs.
“That’s a lot of weight they’re carrying, you know, they have strict regulations on how to do this,” he said. “Each piece is probably right around 10 ton a piece, so 20 ton.”
The state police and the coroner say the concrete slabs that landed on the highway led to a chain reaction of crashes.
First, a tractor trailer drove over the pillar. Minutes later, this sedan ran over it and ended up on its roof. A second rig managed to swerve around the slab, but got rear-ended by a third tractor-trailer.
The driver of that last truck died when the steel beam load he was carrying went through the cabin and crushed him.
The driver killed is Daniel Snyder, 41, from Youngstown, Ohio.
POCONO TOWNSHIP — Fire crews responded to a hotel and indoor water park in Monroe County.
A spokesperson for Great Wolf Lodge resort near Tannersville said an electric heater overheated in an empty room around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Staff members put out the flames with a fire extinguisher, according to the spokesperson and some guests had to go to the lobby for a few hours as a precaution but were then allowed back into their rooms.
STROUDSBURG — A Monroe County man will spend time in prison for a crash that killed his young son.
Christopher Thomas was sentenced Tuesday after admitting he was drunk when he caused a crash that killed his 16-month-old son Dimitrius in December, 2011.
The wreck happened on Route 611 in Pocono Township.
Thomas, 23, will spend 15 to 36 months in jail after he pleaded guilty to homicide by vehicle, driving under the influence, and filing false reports.
Police charged him with the crimes in January, 2012.
POCONO TOWNSHIP — A bridge in Monroe County, closed since last spring, has reopened.
The span carrying Route 314 over Swiftwater Creek near Mount Pocono opened to traffic Wednesday afternoon.
PennDOT closed the original bridge last May because of structural problems.
Since then, crews replaced the bridge, made improvements to the road and replaced guiderails.
POCONO TOWNSHIP- A mobile home in Monroe County has been destroyed after an early morning fire.
The call went out around 5:30 a.m. Saturday morning for the fire on Poe Voll Court near Tannersville.
Officials say four people were inside at the time and all four had to be treated for breathing in too much smoke. No firefighters were injured.
Investigators are looking for a cause of the mobile home fire.
POCONO TOWNSHIP — A man in the Poconos is behind bars again. Authorities say it’s the second time he sexually assaulted a child.
The man is Justin Corliss, 48, of the Tannersville area. He’s accused of sexually abusing a young girl.
Corliss has already served time in prison for a different child sex crime.
“It’s sad. It’s almost that you can’t trust anybody,” said Kerry Safin of Stroudsburg.
And for detective Tom Lynott, this is the second time he’s arrested Corliss.
“Some people just don’t change,” Lynott said.
Back in the late 1990s, Detective Lynott arrested Corliss for molesting a 14-year-old girl. Corliss was convicted and spent 10 years in prison. He was released in 2008.
A year later, police say he started sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl who just recently stepped forward about the abuse.
“The most recent victim said that when it began, she didn’t quite understand what he was doing but later in the school year, she was getting sex-ed in school and understood what was going on.” Lynott said.
Kerry Safin, a mother of two, says she teaches her children not to talk to strangers. She also explains sometimes people we trust can also do bad things.
“I try to tell them if anyone ever says anything inappropriate to you or asks you to do anything that you think or makes you feel weird or that you think is wrong, you have to tell me,” said Safin.
Detective Lynott says those tactics work, especially if children are comfortable to come forward. He said he hopes that will happen if Corliss has other victims.
“He seems whomever he victimizes is someone where he is in a position of trust with,” said Lynott.
Police want to know if Corliss abused any other victims. If you have any information, contact police.
POCONO TOWNSHIP — A family in Monroe County is grieving after they lost their pet goat to a bear attack.
Pocono Township police said around noon on Wednesday, the family from the Tannersville area called authorities about a black bear that climbed over their fence and mauled one of the goats.
The family’s other pet goat survived the attack. A nearby goat farm is adopting the pet to protect it from another attack.
The family wants the community to know to be on the lookout for the bear and to protect your pets if they go outside.
POCONO TOWNSHIP — Police believe someone made off with 941 pairs of sunglasses from a store in the Poconos.
Pocono Township police said the shades were taken late Friday night from the Sunglass Hut at the Crossings Outlets in Tannersville.
The stolen sunglasses have a total value of almost $143,000 dollars. That works out to more than $150 a pair.
Anyone with information is asked to call Pocono Township police at 570-629-7323.
POCONO TOWNSHIP — Police are looking for help identifying a thief they believe stole expensive batteries from two construction trucks at a business in Monroe County.
Security camera photos show the man police think is responsible for the crime.
Authorities say it happened early Wednesday morning at Dehaven’s Excavating near Scotrun.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Pocono Township police at (570) 629-7200 ext.214.
POCONO TOWNSHIP — Investigators say three hunters made a gruesome discovery in a wooded area in Monroe County Monday morning.
The county coroner says the body of a decomposing man was found in Pocono Township.
Investigators say three hunters walking through a densely wooded area in Pocono Township near Tannersville found the body of a decomposing man.
The discovery happened about 300 yards into the woods off of Hallet Road, shocking the people who live in this quiet community.
“Horrified just to know that something like that happened here, I’m really upset,” said Patricia Albergo.
“We walk down there all the time, the kids go down there, we go down to the lake, we take the dog down there, we’re always down there, so yeah, it is very upsetting,” said Sarah Glenn.
The Monroe County coroner says the body was found beyond the former Birchwood Resort and he believes the man, possibly in his 60s, had been dead for at least a month.
The coroner says the man had no identification on him, but did have a small amount of cash and a blanket, leading him to believe the man had been sleeping in the woods.
Pocono Township Police are asking anyone with information on this person’s identity to call them.
“Certainly, whatever reason but there’s family and friends out there looking for him or you’d think, hopefully around here somewhere. I would hope that they had someone searching,” said Glenn.
Neighbors say they hadn’t heard about anyone going missing and hadn’t heard or seen anything strange in the woods.
“Never really see anything that would indicate that anybody’s living out here,” said William Cook. “If he was a vagrant just to have him living in the neighborhood is very alarming or if it was something else, it’s even more so.”
The coroner says an autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday morning at Lehigh Valley Hospital.
POCONO TOWNSHIP — Investigators have identified a body found earlier this week in Monroe County.
The coroner says the remains are those of Joseph Cherepko, 64, of Hellertown in Northampton County.
Three hunters found his body Monday in a wooded area off Hallet Road near Tannersville.
Cherepko had been missing for more than two months.
POCONO TOWNSHIP — State police in Monroe County are investigating a deadly wreck Monday morning on Interstate 80 near Tannersville.
Investigators said a man from Texas was killed when he lost control of his pickup truck and rolled into the median around 1:30 a.m.
Both of his passengers who were also from Texas were not hurt.
POCONO TOWNSHIP — Police in Monroe County are investigating an attempted bank robbery.
Investigators said a man entered the Citizen’s Bank at the intersection of Route 611 and Route 715 in Tannersville around noon Tuesday and gave the teller a note demanding money.
Police said he left in a gray or silver pick-up truck without getting any cash.
Authorities released security photos from the bank. If you have any information, you are asked to contact police at 570-629-7323.
