Thomas Purcell

Butler police have charged a man with having a cell phone that was taken during a burglary earlier this month at a home on Summit Street.

Thomas A. Purcell, 25, of Butler Township was arrested Monday on a felony count of receiving stolen property. He is in the Butler County Prison on $10,000 bail.

Police last week arrested David W. Eberhardt Jr., 26, who has no known address, on charges he burglarized the house Dec. 2. He also is accused of two other recent home break-ins, on North Chestnut and Federal streets.

Eberhardt on Monday waived his preliminary hearing on three counts each of burglary and trespass. He is in the county prison on $100,000 bail.

Police said they arrested Eberhardt after finding him Dec. 4 at a vacant apartment in the 300 block of North Elm Street. Officers also found the stolen Samsung cell phone in the home.

An examination of the phone, according to court documents, found that it had been “wiped clean” of the owner's information and data.

But the phone contained incriminating information. Police said the top of phone's contact list read “Me Tommy Purcell.”

Eberhardt during a subsequent interview with police admitted that he and Purcell had broken into the Summit Street house, investigators said, and taken the phone and a .40-caliber pistol.

The gun was later traded for $70 worth of crack cocaine. Police on Dec. 4 recovered the stolen pistol from a house on South Street.

Investigators on Tuesday said that Purcell is a suspect in the same three burglaries for which Eberhardt is charged. To date, however, he has only been charged with having the stolen cell phone.

His preliminary hearing is set for Dec. 18 at the office of District Judge William Fullerton.