Someone swung a bat through a troubled West Oak Lane convenience store’s windows

It was only New Year’s Eve that the 7-Eleven at 78th and Ogontz aves. in West Oak Lane replaced a front-door window courtesy of a would-be robber who threw a coffeemaker through it while breaking his way out of the convenience store.

The store’s troubled history — namely, six robberies for which Philadelphia Police publicly solicited tips since April 2011 — continued around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday when police responded to a “person with a weapon disturbance” at the site.

People walking past two empty panes where large windows once sat, and over some shards that eluded brooms eight hours later, reckoned it was the work of rocks.

Among passersby observations about the trouble magnet were roofers who, one they noticed it was “a little breezy inside,” joked about passing beverages out to co-workers through the window because “you can walk right through it,” and a local who declared that if employees “killed one of ’em, it won’t happen again.”

However, early police reports indicated that said weapon was a baseball bat.

By late afternoon, the police public-affairs office had yet to receive any more information on the incident, and the 7-Eleven owner had yet to return a call for comment from NewsWorks.

When more information becomes available, we’ll update the story.