Loud, booming music coming from a mysterious location has kept hundreds of Jersey residents near the state border up on weekend nights. Many believe the sounds are coming from Philadelphia, but a Philadelphia cop says the city is unable to address the problem.

Palmyra resident Linda Woodrow Henderson lives a few blocks from the Delaware River, which separates a string of New Jersey towns from Philadelphia. At 3 a.m. Sunday she could hear the noise in her home.

“It was loud enough that I could hear it through the closed window,” she said. “Not music, but bass. Sounded like the same thing over and over.”

Henderson wasn’t the only one disturbed by the noise. Palmyra Police Chief Scott Pearlman said his department received 11 noise complaints between 1:20 a.m. and 2:48 a.m. on Sunday. The department, which serves about 7,200 residents, usually receives zero.

Police departments from Riverton, Cinnaminson, Maple Shade, Gloucester City and other towns along the river also received calls about the noise.

Stacey McCleary Norcross lives in Palmyra three blocks from the river. She said if she had stepped outside her home last night, she could have heard the words to the song.

While the music Sunday morning seemed exceptionally loud, similar incidents have occurred over the past three years. Cops discovered drivers would bring their “boom cars” to illegal drag races and turn up their powerful stereos to party.

But there is little New Jersey officials can do about the disturbance every weekend. Philadelphia is out of their jurisdiction, and sound travels fast over the Delaware River’s waters. On Sunday, New Jersey residents took to local Facebook groups to speculate about where the noise came from and who to call about it. They posted numbers for various police districts in the neighboring city.

But residents’ efforts were probably in vain.

“Without having a block location, we wouldn’t be able to figure it out,” said Eric McLaurin, a Philadelphia Police Department spokesman.

He said the city is chopped up into 21 police districts, plus, dispatchers need an exact address to know where to send an officer. When asked if this puts out-of-state callers a disadvantage, he agreed. Callers have no clue what block or district the music is coming from, he added.

“It’s a huge quality-of-life issue; it would upset me, too,” McLaurin said. “If the noise were bothering me that much, I would literally try to figure out what block location that is. I’m not advising people in New Jersey to drive over the bridge and do that. I don’t know what to advise them.”

Chief Pearlman did cross the Tacony-Palmyra bridge during a similar noise issue in 2017. He drove an unmarked patrol car around the area across from his town. Pearlman spotted a group of people hanging out in “boom cars” and blasting music in a parking lot near the Frankfort Boat Launch.

Large warehouse-like buildings behind the parking lot absorbed some of the noise, Pearlman said. Plus, motorists driving on Interstate 95 created a sound buffer and further shielded Philadelphia residents from hearing it. But the blaring music waves could cleanly shoot across the water and into New Jersey homes, he said.

Pearlman had some success working with the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation department. Department leaders enforced quiet-hour rules at the boat launch, but eventually the “boom cars” just traveled to a different part of the city.

The cars with massive stereos are associated with illegal drag racing, according to Philadelphia Police Capt. Brian Hartzell. In July 2019, over 100 drivers gathered near sports stadiums in the city’s 3rd district. Hartzell said he sent officers to issue citations, according to the Courier-Post.

The Philadelphia Police Department issued nine noise citations in 2018, up from two in 2017, according to police records. The department did not respond to a request for its 2019 records.

On Sunday, Mara Wuebker of Delran tried emailing Hartzell’s district at 3:30 a.m. (The northernmost part of the district is about 12 miles southwest of Delran.) An official responded to her Monday afternoon, saying officers were assigned to be on the lookout for loud music over the weekend, but there were no noise issues on Sunday morning.

“The loud music must have been coming from another location,” the email said.

Palmyra Borough Administrator John Gural can hear the late-night music from his home and frequently hears residents’ complaints. Now, he’s on his final straw.

Gural said his administration has tried just about everything, including contacting Philadelphia Police directly. Gural said he might take the situation to federal court, but first he wants to try to resolve the issue “like a good neighbor”.

“I don’t understand why they can’t do anything,” he said. “I don’t understand. Drive down there and listen to the noise themselves. Our police would certainly do that if the tables were turned.”

However, Cinnaminson Police Chief Rich Calabrese understands why his Philadelphia counterparts might be too busy to worry about the music.

“I grew up in Philly; it has high crime,” he said. “How serious are they going to take (New Jersey residents complaining) when they are dealing with shootings or major crimes?”