Collingswood Police Blotter

Confessed Drug Addict Found Unconscious, Faces New Charges

Michael Richards, who was allegedly involved in a summer crime spree, was arrested again last month for alleged heroin use.

A Collingswood man who was jailed last summer after an evening in which he allegedly participated in a drug-fueled double-burglary and hit-and-run apparently has not gotten the help he needed in the county correctional facility. Michael D. Richards, 33, of Collingswood, a confessed addict who just months ago told his girlfriend—the mother of his two children—that he hoped jail time would help make him "a more productive citizen," was arrested again on drug charges less than two weeks ago. It started at 3 p.m. on Jan. 20, when Collingswood police officers were dispatched to the 500 block of Cattell Ave. to answer the report of an unconscious person. In a second-floor bathroom, they located Richards, who was unresponsive and incoherent. …

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Well-Meaning Neighbors Can't Ignore Consequences of Addiction

For years, a West Collingswood neighborhood knew that Michael Richards was "off," but didn't say anything. Now he hopes jail time can help him straighten out.

In the end, Collingswood resident Michael Richards would probably say he’d finally done one wrong thing too many. To his neighbors, the 33-year-old was known as a harmless hard-luck case who offered up a variety of stories when he asked for hand-outs. To borough police, he was a “frequent flyer” who was often bailed out of trouble by his loving family. But after an early-morning jaunt June 24, in which Richards burglarized two homes on Comly and Grant avenues and struck a utility pole in a car he’d stolen from his father, everybody had had enough. Unable to meet the $40,000, full-cash bail necessary to keep himself out of jail, Richards was remanded to the Camden County correctional facility on multiple charges, including theft, burglary …

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