Hostage Standoff Ends Without Violence

PHILADELPHIA: A hostage standoff at a Philadelphia check-cashing store ended peacefully Friday afternoon. Posing as security guards, a group of men entered the store Friday morning and attempted to rob it, taking up to 70 people inside hostage after the place was surrounded by police. After a tense afternoon of negotiations, the captors began releasing the hostages just before 3 p.m. There were no injuries reported from the incident, but one woman who appeared shaken was carried away on a stretcher. Police believe that the robbery attempt is connected to at least three other similar crimes at other Financial Exchange stores in the city. In each incident, store employees have been taken hostage in their homes the night before the store is to be robbed. Thursday night, police kept watch outside a home several miles from the site of Friday's standoff, where a guard and a cashier from the store were being held captive. Police were kept at bay overnight, and when they were able to enter, the suspects were gone.