MOUNT PLEASANT — State police said the owner and three employees of a towing firm plundered $16,000 worth of custom-made knives from a tractor-trailer involved in a fatal Pennsylvania Turnpike crash.

Michael Yanuck, 42, of Scottdale and three employees of Diamond Towing of Mount Pleasant are charged with theft in the Aug. 23 crash.

The truck's driver was killed when the vehicle veered off a curve and crashed. Diamond is one of 20 companies with a contract to clear wreckage from the turnpike, but its contract is being terminated.

Yanuck and his company have not returned calls for comment.

The truck was hauling knives for Snap-On Tools. Police say the towing employees took boxes of the custom-made knives and passed them out to emergency responders who told police about it.

PITTSBURGH — A prosecutor said a Pittsburgh-area man scammed his grandmother out of her home by telling her to sign over the property to him so he could get money to repair the home through a government program.Tony Armstead, 38, of McDonald was in custody Thursday on theft charges. Online court records do not list an attorney for him.District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. said Armstead told his grandmother he wanted to reopen a storefront that is part of the property in question. He promised to give back the property after allegedly using a power of attorney she never granted him to transfer the property to him.Instead, Armstead sold the property for $60,000. He allegedly gave his grandmother $17,000 she thought was for the repairs, and used some of the other money to pay off bills.