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The party's over

JOCELYN SARAH Kirsch had planned to throw a 25th birthday party tonight at an upscale Rittenhouse Square eatery for her live-in love, Edward Kyle Anderton.

JOCELYN SARAH Kirsch had planned to throw a 25th birthday party tonight at an upscale Rittenhouse Square eatery for her live-in love, Edward Kyle Anderton.

"If you're in town, please join us at Tinto tapas bar for some suprise-birthday drinks and desserts around 10pm," wrote the Drexel University senior to her pals.

To which she added: "(MY treat, of course!)"

Actually, it was courtesy of some of their unknowing neighbors, whose identities the couple allegedly stole from inside their Belgravia condos, on Chestnut Street near 18th, part of their alleged $100,000 crime spree.

But the daring duo - now all over the national news media - won't be attending the party, because they'll instead be spending the night in the clink.

Kirsch, 22, and Anderton are expected to turn themselves in at 4 p.m. today to Central Detectives, where they will be charged with burglary, a police source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The couple is also slated for a hearing tomorrow at the Criminal Justice Center.

The pair - whose nickname, "Bonnie and Clyde," is sticking like spaghetti to a wall - are believed to have broken into some of their neighbors' residences and taken personal information, police say. More disturbing, Kirsch and Anderton, a 2005 University of Pennsylvania graduate with a degree in economics, may have installed spyware into some of their neighbors' computers to retrieve information, police said.

They were initally arrested and charged on Friday with identity theft, conspiracy, unlawful use of a computer, forgery and a slew of other crimes. The feds are also expected to take a look at the case.

In another twist to the unraveling saga, Anderton's former employer, Lubert-Adler Real Estate Funds, owns the Center City building where the alleged identity theft scam took place.

This leads to the burning question: How did the couple end up with copies of keys to all of the mailboxes and most of the units?

Could Anderton have possibly gained access to the keys because of his job?

Repeated calls yesterday from the Daily News to Lubert-Adler, with offices in the Cira Centre, were not returned.

Kirsch's former close friend, Sallie Cook, said that Kirsch had told her that Anderton's company paid for half the apartment's $3,000 a month rent, at least until December.

But before September and after they moved in in June, Anderton was canned from his analyst job.

The expanding saga has friends and classmates of the duo expressing a mixed bag of emotions: anger, betrayal, frustration, amazement, excitement - and a fair share of schadenfreude.

Most of that is directed at Kirsch, whose encounters with students and local businesses reads like something out of a juicy novel.

Yesterday, Sallie Cook learned that Kirsch - with whom she hadn't socialized with for a year because Kirsch allegedly stole money using Cook's ATM card - had been arrested.

All of Cook's guilt for having treated Kirsch harshly for so long went out the window.

"How was jail?" Cook wrote in a text to Kirsch. The 20-year-old Drexel student received no response.

"This is a great day. I've been laughing so hard," said Ian Jacobson earlier this week. His best friend dated Kirsch, whom he called "very conniving. She kind of just stuck her claws into my friend and twisted his perception of things."

Jacobson and Cook, like many others at Drexel who spoke on condition of anonymity, truly never believed the things uttered by Kirsch.

"I always had in the back of my mind suspicions that she was either a klepto or that it was a facade that she had money and she really needed things," said Cook, 20.

Cook keeps a computer file titled "Things Jocelyn Took From Me." Vanished items include perfume, a leather coat and Proactive skin-care products, Cook said.

"I don't have a lot," said Cook, who is now engaged. "What we have, we work for. We're college students. Somebody who comes from money shouldn't be taking things."

Kirsch's parents are both plastic surgeons, she told some of her friends. Cook said she has met Kirsch's parents, having dined at Cuba Libre with them and Kirsch last year. A distant Kirsch relative and Internet records confirm that her father, Dr. Lee Kirsch, is a plastic surgeon in North Carolina. Kirsch told Cook that her mother was the president of a hospital chain, she said.

An uncle related to the Kirsches refused comment last night. There was no answer at the Kirsch family home in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Although some classmates sensed dishonesty in Kirsch, they still remained friends with her. In fact, some said they either forgave her deceit or were overwhelmed with guilt for treating a friend too harshly.

"She was really fun to go out with, but she was also the most ridiculous person I have ever met," said one former friend in an e-mail. "She has told so many lies over the years that I could never believe anything she said."

"She once tried to convince me her eyes were naturally purple because it's a gene people in Lithuania (that's where she says she is from) have," the classmate wrote. "Then my roommate borrowed her purse and found purple contacts."

The litany of lies was "actually quite hilarious," the former pal wrote.

A Facebook group called "SHE GOIN' TO JAAAAAAAAIL!!!! (and THAT'S hilarious)" was formed a few hours after the Daily News exclusive hit the stands on Monday. Kirsch's fellow Drexel University students and others vent their "I told you so's" and post altered humorous photos of Kirsch's much-talked about mug shot. One image has her sporting a Santa cap and, in a take on the Amy Winehouse song "Rehab," the caption next to her reads "They tried to make me go to prison but i said ho, ho, ho." *