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Someone stole Philly City Councilmember Bobby Henon’s car over the weekend

Members of City Council often work weekends. So do car thieves, Bobby Henon learned Saturday.

Philadelphia City Councilmember Bobby Henon in 2019.
Philadelphia City Councilmember Bobby Henon in 2019.Read moreDAVID MAIALETTI / Staff Photographer

Members of City Council often work weekends. So do car thieves, Bobby Henon learned Saturday.

Henon left his black 2017 Ford Escape running outside his district office on Torresdale Avenue in Tacony around 9 a.m. and went inside for what he estimated was “less than a minute.”

“I went back out and they were driving away,” Henon told Clout. “I was working, just unloading a couple of things.”

The Philadelphia Police Department said the car — Henon’s personal ride, he doesn’t drive a city car — was recovered later in the day on Summer Street, about 10 miles away in West Philadelphia.

Investigators from the department’s Major Crimes Unit found video surveillance of a man who was a passenger in a silver Hyundai Sonata jumping into Henon’s car outside his office.

Henon said he got his car back with no damage, but his personal cell phone, which he had left behind, was gone.

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About that phone: The Inquirer reported in 2017 that federal investigators had been listening in on phone calls by Henon and other officials from Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. That came a year after the feds searched Henon’s City Hall and Torresdale Avenue offices, along with offices and homes of Local 98 officials.

Henon, Local 98 leader John Dougherty and six other union officials were indicted on corruption charges in 2019. Dougherty and Henon, who have denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty, are scheduled for trial May 3. Dougherty and the other union officials will stand trial together after the first court case concludes. (Dougherty is a defendant in both trials.)

Henon praised Philly police recovering his car.

“I wasn’t happy about it,’ he said. “But I’m glad the department was able to track it down. They did a great job.”

Clout provides often irreverent news and analysis about people, power, and politics.