Abandoned Schools, Police Radios, and Drugs

NBC 10 Investigators get updates

Updated 10:54 AM EST, Tue, Jul 28, 2009

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The NBC 10 Investigators got updates on three past investigations: Philadelphia's Edison High School, police radio system failure, and suspicious activity outside one methadone clinic.

The NBC 10 investigators told you how Philadelphia's Edison high school it had become a playground for vandals, hookers and drug dealers.

“Look it's an outrage, 8 year old kids routinely get in through openings in the building and they play games up on the roof,” said city controller, Alan Butkovitz.

The abandoned school was being taken apart piece by piece, anything metal was looted.

After the NBC 10 investigators exposed the problem last September with the help of the city controller office things have changed.

The school district has installed metal gates over doors and windows. And, a 12-foot cement wall was erected to block off the school's courtyard.

There’s still some work to be done but the city says they have not received any incident reports since the new security improvements.

Read: City Conroller Alan Butkovitz Acts on Complaints from Neighbors and Cleans Up Vacant High School

Police Commissioner Ramsey had a real mystery on his hands last September. That's when the police radio system, the police officer's lifeline, went down for forty minutes on 22 of the 25 radio bands.

Troubleshooters searched high and low for the cause.

But, this was just the latest in over a dozen interruptions in police radio in the last five years.

“You sneeze on this system, it goes out of service. This is not good,” said City Councilman, Frank Rizzo.

This week, in a report to city council, this particular police radio outage was blamed on "operator error” by Motorola during a routine maintenance" earlier that day.

Motorola wouldn't comment to the NBC 10 investigators but in the report the company says, immediate steps were taken to improve the performance of Motorola’s technical staff.

Read: Radio System Report

Marti Hottenstein knew her son; Karl was addicted to prescription painkillers. But, she believes the last thing he did was buy an illegal dose of methadone on the street.

The NBC 10 investigators first met Marti when they went undercover to show you what appeared to be illegal drug activity right in front of a drug treatment center.

Since then, Marti started a foundation to help others get help with their addictions.

And now she's taking her fight to the streets, she's put a billboard along route one in Bensalem so people will never forget.

Check out the original report: State Looks Into Suspicious Activity Outside Methadone Clinic

Also check out Marti Hottenstein’s web site: How To Save a Life Foundation