Before his death this past winter, Tim Worsen had an uphill battle to maintain his small business: Precision Auto Plus in Jefferson Township.

Struggling against significant health woes that included kidney and pancreas transplants, Worsen worked night and day to cover not only his businesses’ overhead, but also his mounting medical bills.

That, his sister said, is why what some might consider a small scale theft of $4,000 in tools and inspection stickers was devastating to him and his family.

“For Tim to realize $3,500 profit, he had to generate $25,000 in gross sales. At a labor rate of $60 per hour, he would have to work a minimum of 375 hours, which was about nine weeks of work for him,” his sister, Teresa Pugliese of Valencia, told Butler County Judge William Schaffer Thursday in a written statement.

The judge, after hearing the statement, sentenced a 24-year-old Slippery Rock man in relation to the incident. Christopher S. Walker pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property and was sentenced to serve a year probation and pay $4,077 in restitution.

Walker was not charged with the burglary or theft.

Court records say his plea is based on state police finding one of the stolen inspection stickers on a vehicle. The vehicle’s owner told investigators that Walker, who was employed by a different auto shop, sold him the sticker under the impression that he had legitimately inspected the car.

The defendant, who was ordered to pay restitution covering all of the stolen items, made no statements in court.

But Pugliese, when given a chance to speak, told the judge about how her brother, a Mars High School graduate, had started his business in 2009 with less than $500 in working capital and a limited inventory of second-hand tools.

She said one of the items stolen from him was a primary piece of equipment used to diagnose problems with vehicles, and therefore, generate business.

“ ... to steal his tools and inspection stickers as well as damage his garage put an incredible amount of stress on him ... It exacerbated his health condition and put strain on his personal life,” Pugliese said, noting that her brother was just about always working when he wasn’t in the hospital.

“Most people with his set of health conditions would quite frankly apply for disability,” she said. “Not him, he went to work every day, regardless of how he felt. Some days he would lie on the creeper on the garage just trying to gain strength to keep going.”

According to obituary information, Worsen died Feb. 23 at the age of 49.

Pugliese, a single mother, said she, too, was affected by this loss because she loaned her brother money to help with his medical costs.

“I generate an income by working,” Pugliese said. “Not stealing.”