More burglary charges filed against suspect
MIDDLESEX TWP — A 24-year-old township man jailed since July for allegedly breaking into four neighbors’ homes is accused of two additional burglaries.
But Middlesex Township admit they might not be done investigating Chad Dolan just yet.
Police this week charged Dolan with breaking into two homes in the Sandy Hill Estates trailer park near Route 228 this summer.
The latest charges bring to six the number of burglaries at the same trailer park that investigators have linked to the suspect, who was living there during the crime spree between June and July.
Dolan has been in the Butler County Prison since July 7 when he was arrested in connection with the other burglaries.
The defendant in the new cases is accused of stealing more than $11,000 in jewelry and prescription medication from one home and a $500 wedding ring from the other home.
The stolen property from the two break-ins, according to Middlesex Patrolman Randy Davison, was previously recovered from Dolan’s home.
Police only recently identified the owner of the ring.
“It was her grandmother’s wedding ring,” Davison said of the owner. “She was very happy to get it back”
Davison noted that several victims did not immediately know their homes had been burglarized until days or weeks after the crimes.
Some victims, he acknowledged, still might not know.
“There’s more jewelry, two rings, that I still haven’t identified,” Davison said. “I don’t know who the owner is.”
Those rings turned up during the July 7 warrant search of Dolan’s home.
Davison did not rule out that Dolan could face still more charges once the owner or owners of the other jewelry come forward.
Police arrested the suspect after neighbors spotted him allegedly burglarizing a mobile home about 10 a.m. July 7.
Davison got there and within minutes nabbed Dolan walking within the trailer park. The officer believed the arrest came just as the defendant was planning to break into another trailer, police said. Police found a screwdriver, gloves and a bottle of medication in Dolan’s pocket.
Investigators said the prescription medicine, believed to be sleeping pills, had been stolen from the home that Dolan had allegedly broken into moments earlier.
Davison said the suspect was taken to the police station and quickly offered up a confession to a series of burglaries at the trailer park. He admitted he was mainly looking for jewelry, which he allegedly sold to a gold store in Natrona Heights, Allegheny County.
“He bought heroin with the money he got,” Davison said.
In all, Dolan is charged with six counts each of burglary, trespass, theft and receiving stolen property, and one count each of attempted burglary and possessing instruments of crime.
He is in the county prison $25,000 bail.
