Garage Door

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -- Letterkenny Army Depot's public affairs office released information Thursday about problems area residents might experience with their garage door openers. People living around some military bases have reported their garage door openers have malfunctioned or stopped working, according to a press release from the Federal Communications Commission. Garage door openers operate on frequencies reserved for the federal government since World War II, according to the release.

By KIMBERLY YAKOWSKI / Staff Writer photo: KEVIN G. GILBERT / staff photographer A driverless flaming pickup truck crashed into a Hagerstown man's garage Thursday, setting the garage on fire and destroying it and the truck. [cont. from front page ] Franklin William Kennedy, of 11126 Glenside Ave., had been helping his friend Daniel Anrom repair the truck inside a detached garage at Kennedy's home. Kennedy started the pickup and it backfired and caught on fire at about 1:21 p.m., according to the State Fire Marshal's Office.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - A town house was heavily damaged Thursday afternoon when a pickup truck parked outside caught fire, sending flames to the garage door. "I came home for lunch in my work truck," said Shaun Thornton of 1004 Laurich Drive. He later looked out the window and saw smoke. "I looked out a little further and saw flames coming from the truck," said Thornton, who ran outside and tried unsuccessfully to put out the fire with a garden hose. The garage door was closed, but the fire spread up the door and into the interior of the house, he said.

A Cascade man accused of striking his girlfriend with his pickup truck in November pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree assault, despite a letter the victim wrote to the judge retracting her accusation, according to Washington County District Court records. John William Spahr, 33, of 14449 Royer Road, will remain in jail while the Department of Parole and Probation prepares a pre-sentence report, according to court records. A Washington County District Court judge requested an extensive investigation into Spahr's background to guide his sentencing.

A Cascade man was charged with attempted second-degree murder Sunday in connection with a Saturday incident during which he struck his girlfriend with his pickup truck, Maryland State Police said. The woman was pinned against the garage door at the couple's residence, troopers said in a news release. She was taken to Washington County Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, troopers said. The assault had started at the Chocolate Park Tavern parking lot in the area of Md. 491 and Pennersville Road.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -- A man who authorities allege is a "confirmed 'Blood' gang member" was arrested Tuesday in Chambersburg, Pa., by U.S. marshals working with the Chambersburg Police Department, according to a news release from the U.S. Marshals Service. Troy Dillard, 32, of Trenton, N.J., was wanted on an arrest warrant connected to a violent carjacking in the Philadelphia, Pa., area, the news release stated. The Newtown Borough Police Department investigated a carjacking in which a woman was assaulted by three males after she opened a garage door and the trunk of a 2007 Mercedes.

Miriam Amanda Horst, 86, of Chambersburg, Pa., passed away Saturday, Aug. 4, 2012, at Menno Haven Nursing Home in Chambersburg.  Born March 25, 1926, in Chambersburg, she was the daughter of the late David B. and Fannie Martin Frey. An LPN, Mrs. Horst worked as a nurse until she married in 1961, where she began helping her husband grow and expand their family business, Horst Garage Door Co. Mrs. Horst enjoyed cooking, gardening, sewing, playing the harmonica and singing. In addition, she enjoyed volunteering in disaster situations alongside her husband.

Three people might have spent the early hours of Easter stealing from garages and unlocked cars in the Fountainhead and Longmeadow Road area north of Hagerstown before stealing a car that was unlocked with the keys in it, the Washington County Sheriff's Department said in a news release. On at least two occasions, those responsible “got into unlocked cars and pushed the garage door openers,” deputies said. “Once the garage opened, bicycles were then stolen from the garages, possibly to operate a little faster than on foot.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - The attorney for an Inwood doctor charged with operating a backhoe while intoxicated and hitting a deputy who arrested him said Friday in a status hearing that his client was under the influence of some type of "medication - slash - possible consumption of alcohol. " On Friday, Berkeley County Magistrate Harry L. Snow agreed to schedule a suppression hearing after Dr. John C. Veltman's attorney, Craig B. Manford, made the remarks, and also told the judge he only received a copy of video footage concerning the incident Friday.