Butler Township police charged two brothers in connection with an after-hours burglary at a pizza shop in March.

Police charged Eric James Fleske, 25, of Butler Township and Jonathan Thomas Fleske, 25, of Butler with allegedly stealing $464 from the Little Caesars in the Butler Crossing shopping center on March 10.

Both men were charged Monday with felony charges of burglary, criminal trespass, criminal conspiracy to commit burglary and criminal conspiracy to commit criminal trespass and misdemeanor charges of theft and criminal conspiracy before District Judge Kevin O’Donnell, who released both men on $5,000 unsecured bail.

The four months between the time of the burglary and the arrests was needed to identify the suspects, said John Hays, township police chief.

“It took us a while to identify who these people were. Once we did, we had to make sure we had the right people,” Hays said.

He commended Patrolman Tyler Collins for investigating the case while handling his other duties.

“It took good old-fashioned police work to make sure we knew who they were. The officer is a patrolman. He has other cases and he’s on patrol. He took the initiative and did a good job of identifying both of them,” Hays said.

The investigation began after the shop manager contacted police on March 11 and reported that money was discovered missing from a cash register. He showed Collins a surveillance video with a male suspect who used a key to enter the front door and remove money from a register at 11:02 p.m. March 10, Collins said in affidavits of probable cause.

Surveillance videos from neighboring businesses showed a white Jeep with a dark colored left front fender parking in the area. The videos also showed a passenger exiting the vehicle, walking toward the shop as well as entering the vehicle and the vehicle driving away, police said.

On April 6, Collins said he spotted a white Jeep Cherokee with a dark colored left front fender parked behind a business on New Castle Street. He said Eric Fleske approached him and said he owns the vehicle and lives in an apartment above the business.

Eric Fleske agreed to meet Collins at the police station where he identified the vehicle as his and identified the man inside the shop as his brother, Jonathan, after being shown the videos, police said.

Surveillance video obtained from other businesses on April 9 shows the brothers and a woman leaving Eric’s apartment at 10:03 p.m. March 10. In that video, police said Jonathan was wearing clothing similar to what the man in the shop was wearing.

During an April 12 interview, Eric admitted to driving his brother to the Kohl’s parking lot near the pizza shop, police said.

The Fleskes preliminary hearings are scheduled Sept. 27 before O’Donnell.