Retail theft stood out among this week's criminal court filings, accounting for five of the eight criminal cases filed in Magisterial District Court 38-1-09 in King of Prussia.
Upper Merion Township Police filed all five cases. The charges range from misdemeanor retail theft to felony retail theft, receiving stolen property and conspiracy.
The concentration comes against a much larger backdrop of theft activity in Upper Merion. Police reported 897 larceny-theft offenses in 2025, an average of nearly 75 per month. Another 254 were reported through April 2026, the latest month currently reflected in Pennsylvania's crime-data portal.
Those police statistics and the court filings measure different things. The police data counts reported offenses, while the court tracker counts cases formally filed in the local Magisterial District Courts.
Five retail-theft cases
Three of this week's retail-theft filings stem from alleged incidents on Sept. 5.
Two of those cases, CR-309 and CR-310, share the same Upper Merion Police incident number, indicating they arose from the same alleged incident. Both defendants were charged with felony retail theft and misdemeanor receiving stolen property.
A third case, CR-316, arose from a separate Sept. 5 incident. That defendant was also charged with felony retail theft and receiving stolen property.
Another filing, CR-311, stems from an alleged Sept. 7 incident and includes charges of retail theft, receiving stolen property, possession of an instrument of crime, conspiracy to commit retail theft, conspiracy to receive stolen property and criminal mischief.
The fifth case, CR-312, involves an alleged July 29 incident. The charges include felony conspiracy to commit retail theft, receiving stolen property and a summary retail-theft count.
The docket sheets provide the charges but little information about what allegedly occurred inside the stores. Spotlight plans to obtain the criminal complaints in several of the cases for additional details.
Other criminal filings
Seven other criminal cases were filed across the two courts during the reporting period.
Among them was a firearm case filed by Upper Merion Police involving a misdemeanor charge of carrying a firearm without a license. The alleged incident occurred Sept. 2.
Another Upper Merion case included three controlled-substance possession charges and three drug-paraphernalia charges stemming from a July 27 incident.
Several DUI cases were also filed during the week.
One criminal case appearing in the 38-1-25 filings originated in Lansdale and was later transferred. It is included in the court filing count because it was filed in that court during the reporting period, but it should not be interpreted as an Upper Merion or Bridgeport crime.
86 cases filed overall
Spotlight identified 86 unique docket filings across the two courts from Sept. 5 through Sept. 11.
Filing type | 38-1-09 | 38-1-25 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
Traffic | 29 | 22 | 51 |
Criminal | 8 | 4 | 12 |
Civil | 4 | 8 | 12 |
Landlord-Tenant | 0 | 6 | 6 |
Non-Traffic | 2 | 3 | 5 |
Total | 43 | 43 | 86 |
Traffic cases again represented the largest category, with 51 filings.
The 29 traffic dockets filed in 38-1-09 do not necessarily represent 29 separate traffic incidents. Several groups of citations share the same incident number and were issued to the same person.
Borough files $12,000 civil claim
One civil filing also stood out.
The Borough of Bridgeport is listed as the plaintiff in a civil action filed Sept. 11 seeking $12,000 from two individual defendants. The docket does not state the underlying reason for the claim.
Spotlight is looking into the complaint to determine what the borough is seeking to recover.
Landlord-tenant filings return
Six landlord-tenant cases were filed in 38-1-25 during the week.
All six were filed by Park Square Philly Owner LLC, doing business as Park Square, with combined claims totaling $21,799.91. The amounts listed on the docket sheets are claims, not judgments.
About the court tracker
Each week, Upper Merion Area Spotlight reviews newly filed cases in the two Magisterial District Courts whose jurisdictions cover Upper Merion Township and Bridgeport Borough: MDJ 38-1-09 in King of Prussia and MDJ 38-1-25 in Bridgeport.
The tracker includes criminal, traffic, non-traffic, civil and landlord-tenant filings.
Criminal charges are allegations. A filing does not establish guilt, and cases can be withdrawn, dismissed, amended or resolved later in the court process.
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Thank you for reading,
Corey