Police say a Vandergrift man told them he broke into a Frazer home on Wednesday and stole $4,000 worth of cash, jewelry and guns to “help a friend get money.”
When officers found Kevin Paul Pierce, 29, he was in his truck looking through the jewelry he had taken, Frazer police Officer Dalton Vanwhy said.
“He was going through the jewelry in (his) truck, and they could see in plain view boxes of jewelry and things they believed were stolen items from the residence,” Vanwhy said Thursday.
Pierce faces a number of charges including burglary, trespassing, receiving stolen property and theft.
He was arrested Wednesday and taken to the Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh. Online court records show he had not yet been arraigned as of Thursday afternoon.
Vanwhy said police received a report about 3:30 p.m. that someone broke into a house in the 400 block of Murray Hill Road.
The homeowner told police he came home to find the side door open and his house in disarray. Missing were a large quantity of jewelry, two pistols, a shotgun, and $1,300, according to the criminal complaint.
The homeowner told police he had heard someone go out the back of the house and into the woods.
Officers got the assistance of West Deer’s police dog to help search the woods. During the search, they found a foot path littered with pieces of jewelry believed to have been taken from the house.
Several witnesses told police they saw a man, later identified as Pierce, walking through the woods. They said he had been hanging around the area for a couple days.
The witnesses said they talked with Pierce, who was carrying boxes and putting them in a yellow, older-model Ford Ranger pickup. Pierce allegedly told the witnesses he was “relieving himself,” the complaint said.
Shortly after an alert was issued for the truck, New Kensington and Lower Burrell police found it in the parking lot of the Dollar Tree on Logans Ferry Road near Plum. Those officers told Frazer police that jewelry and assorted boxes of jewelry were in plain view.
During a search of his truck, police found jewelry, a loaded handgun, drugs including suboxone and heroin, and drug paraphernalia.
According to the complaint, Pierce has been convicted of felonies, which makes it illegal for him to have a gun. His driver’s license was suspended and had expired in 2015, the complaint said.
