Woman Charged with Trying (Again) to Steal Donations: Whitehall Borough Police Briefs (Sept. 20-26)

Woman Charged with Trying (Again) to Steal Donations

On Sept. 25 at approximately 8:38 p.m., officers on patrol observed a suspicious vehicle parked in front of the donation center along Route 51.

The officers reported observing a female taking items left for donation there and loading them into the rear of her vehicle. The officers approached the woman—Latasha Richards, 35, of 954 Manton Way in Pittsburgh's Allentown neighborhood—stopped her and retrieved the donations. police are charging Richards via summons with retail theft. (UPDATE: The charge was eventually changed to disorderly conduct.)

Whitehall police Chief Donald R. Dolfi said that Richards has been stopped before and warned about taking donated items.

Man Charged with Trying to Steal DVDs from Giant Eagle

On Sept. 22 at approximately 6:57 p.m., Whitehall police reported to the at in response to a possible retail theft.

An employee at that Giant Eagle had observed a man attempting to bypass a cashier and leave the store with multiple DVDs hidden inside of his jacket. The store manager was notified and confronted the man with the DVDs, who then, police report the manager as saying, went back to where he got the DVDs from and dropped them into a box. The man was reported as trying to leave the store with six DVDs valued at $179 total before the manager intervened.

Whitehall police spoke to and released the man—Brenton Fawcett, 36, of 353 Brookline Blvd. in Pittsburgh’s Brookline neighborhood—but are charging him via summons with retail theft.

Vehicle Damages Fence at Prospect Park

On Sept. 20 at approximately 7:08 p.m., Whitehall police officers responded to for a report of a vehicle striking a fence that surrounds a ball field there.

The officers reported finding damage to a horizontal fence pole as well as securing clamps but did not observe a vehicle in the vicinity.

A witness at the scene told police that the vehicle that hit the fence—a small, silver, four-door vehicle with a black hood—had four males inside of it. The incident is under investigation. 

Whitehall’s Public Works Department will repair the fence. It is not known yet how much it will cost to fix. 

Computers Missing from Parkline Drive Apartment

On Sept. 21 at approximately 6:48 p.m., a resident from the 1695 Parkline Drive building in the called Whitehall police to report a missing laptop and desktop computer.

Whitehall police officers reported finding no sign of forced entry to the victim’s apartment. Officers canvassed surrounding apartments and spoke to nearby residents. One resident said that he was home all day prior to the computers being reported as missing but did not see or hear anything suspicious.

Building security personnel changed the lock to the victim’s apartment.

The value of the items lost is estimated between $1,100 and $1,400. The incident is under investigation.