🦋 Bugging out about the $40,000 bug museum heist | Morning Newsletter

Today is looking warm and cloudy, with highs approaching 70.

In Today’s Newsletter:

🌎 Following: The latest on the war in Ukraine on the heels of a press conference from Russian President Vladimir Putin. And here’s our list of ways you can help Ukraine right now.

🦋 Touring: The bizarro history of the Philadelphia Insectarium & Butterfly Pavilion, the subject of the new documentary Bug Out, which falls down the rabbit hole of the unsolved 2018 theft of thousands of creatures. This was the perfect reason for us to fly, not crawl, into our archives on the museum. You knew this story would be fascinating, but this is beyond.

🦞 Dining: Our food critic Craig LaBan has high praise for the “effortless elegance” of a Mediterranean rooftop restaurant in Bala Cynwyd.

🧩 Playing: Our word scramble game, which we tried to make a little harder, and as always, our pop quiz.

📮 Asking: We want to hear you. Has anyone in your neighborhood done something truly kind that made you smile? We might feature your story here. Keep it to 35 words. Drop us an email.

— Ashley Hoffman (@_AshleyHoffman, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

We’re headed to Holmesburg to bring you a story about the Philadelphia Insectarium & Butterfly Pavilion, the subject of the new documentary Bug Out.

OK so first of all, this museum was known as THE “go-to spot for offbeat school trips.” Just imagine: the roach exhibit for rock solid kid nightmare material. Oh, and also: an actual heist that went down in 2018. Look — it was a weird night at the local bug aficionado hang when $40,000 worth of insects, lizards, and other species were stolen, apparently to be sold on the black market.

And get this: It could have been an inside job, as these shenanigans so often are. This might as well be exhibit A through Z: They found “blue employee uniforms hanging from knives that had been thrust into a wall.” But we still have no clue who did this. Despite having watched Ocean’s 11-13 + 8, I still can‘t wrap my head around the way they whistled out of there with All Those Lizards.

Who was up to the mystery challenge? One guy. Lower Merion’s own Ben Feldman, who made the four-part documentary. And our reporter Nick Vadala’s timeline, filled with newspaper clippings about things like the Bug Olympics debut and snapshots of kids marveling at bugs, is a must-read.

Before he was one of the biggest director names in horror, he was just a boy raised in Penn Valley. Hint: 🌃

GAN HYMNAL MATHIS

Send your guess our way at morningnewsletter@inqurier.com. We’ll give a shoutout to the first reader to get this right.

🎉 Cheers to Josh who was first to correctly guess GRACE KELLY as Friday’s answer. 🎉

🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕

How did that Good Pizza guy serve pizza pies to the people of Philly out of his apartment window on Sansom Street?

A) Slip ‘N Slide

B) rope and pulley system

C) drone delivery system

D) tossing them onto a bouncy house

Find the answer here.

And for today’s Sunday track, we’re listening to 🎶 ”Give me love. Give me love. Give me peace on earth. Give me light. Give me life.” 🎶

👋🏽 Soak in the comfort of your loved ones today.