JEFFERSON TWP — State police Wednesday arrested a 29-year-old township man suspected in an attempted carjacking at a convenience store last week after he allegedly returned to the scene of that crime and stole a vehicle left running in the parking lot.

Troopers searching for the stolen 2001 Ford Explorer found it in the driveway of a home in Kiski Township, Armstrong County.

Inside his mother’s house, the suspect, Matthew J. Peltz, was arrested. Police said he admitted stealing the Explorer.

Peltz’s arrest ended a manhunt that began Jan. 29 after police suspected he went on a crime spree during which he tried to rob a woman’s car at gunpoint before stealing another vehicle and holding up a store in Buffalo Township.

Police later recovered the gun, which turned out to be an Airsoft-style gun.

For now, Peltz is in Butler County Prison on charges he stole the Explorer on Tuesday afternoon at the BP/Fueland store on Dinnerbell Road in Jefferson Township.

But he could be charged as soon as today in connection with last week’s other crimes, according to lead investigator Trooper Adam Peth.

“We hope to question him today and we hope he’s cooperative,” Peth said this morning.

Police did not immediately try to question Peltz following his arrest because they suspected he was impaired by drugs.

His drug addiction, investigators believe, motivated his suspected criminal conduct.

Troopers arrested Peltz nearly 19 hours after a woman reported her mother’s Explorer stolen. The woman said she drove the vehicle to the Fueland across from Knoch High School about 4 p.m. Tuesday.

She went into the store to buy windshield wiper fluid, leaving the vehicle unlocked and running, police said. When she came out, the vehicle was gone.

Peth said police previously identified Peltz as the suspect in last week’s crime spree. Not surprisingly, their suspicions turned to him for Tuesday’s vehicle theft.

They went looking for him and about 11 a.m. Wednesday, Trooper Jon Pomaybo of the Kittanning station discovered the stolen vehicle parked at the end of the driveway of Kathryne Doms’ home — 25 miles from the store.

Police found Doms and Peltz, her son, at the house.

It didn’t take long for him to admit stealing the Explorer.

“Peltz said that he was walking around in Saxonburg the previous night and saw the vehicle running and took it,” according to a police affidavit.

He told troopers where they could find the keys to the vehicle — in the bathroom closet at his mother’s house wrapped in a towel.

He was arrested and taken to the county prison, where he was arraigned by video on a charge of felony theft.

During the arraignment, District Judge Sue Haggerty expressed concern with his mental state, believing he could be under the influence of drugs, making him unable to understand the charges against him.

At times while Haggerty spoke to him, he appeared to be dozing off while seated on a bench.

However, police told Haggerty that before the arraignment, they had taken Peltz to ACMH Hospital near Kittanning, where he was examined and medically cleared for arraignment.

Peltz, who is jailed on $50,000 bail, could soon be in front of Haggerty again since police suspect he is the man responsible for a series of crimes Jan. 29 that began just after 6:30 p.m. at the same Fueland store on Dinnerbell Road.

A 44-year-old Sarver woman told police she had driven to the store and used the automated teller machine. When she returned to her Jeep Patriot, a man was inside.

She said the stranger stuck a handgun in her rib cage and told her to drive away. But she refused and jumped out of the vehicle, taking the keys with her.

The would-be robber took off running.

Just 10 minutes later, troopers got another call, this one reporting the theft of a 1997 Jeep Cherokee from the Saxony Estates mobile home park on Driftwood Drive in Jefferson Township.

The owner of that Jeep, which was in a driveway at the trailer park behind the Fueland store, also had left the vehicle running to get warmed up, authorities said.

Peltz lives at Saxony Estates in a trailer that his family owns, Peth said.

An hour after the Jeep was stolen, the BP/Fueland store on Ekastown Road in Buffalo Township was robbed at gunpoint about 8 p.m.

Buffalo Township police said the suspect, wearing a dark ski mask, dark gloves and other dark clothing, brandished what appeared to be a handgun and demanded money.

He left with an undisclosed amount of money. Police believe he used the stolen Jeep to get away.

An hour later, police recovered the Jeep at the park and ride on Route 356 in Buffalo Township.

In the Jeep, police recovered the gun they believe Peltz used during the crime spree.

“It was a toy gun,” Peth said. “But it looks real. The entire gun was spray painted black.”

Court records showed that Peltz last year pleaded guilty in Armstrong County to charges in three criminal cases — two for misdemeanor drug possession and the other for driving under the influence of drugs.

He is to be sentenced on those charges March 3.