BUTLER TWP — A teenager is jailed on robbery and other charges after he allegedly punched a store security officer early this morning while trying to steal a $10 piece of cable for a video game system, police said.

Employees at the Wal-Mart in Butler Commons about 12:15 a.m. stepped in to help their co-worker and detain 18-year-old Christopher A. Defelice before police got to the store and arrested him.

Butler Township police said when they searched the suspect officers found him with a plastic baggie containing a dozen tablets of the potent prescription painkiller OxyContin and three Methadone tablets.

District Judge Sue Haggerty arraigned Defelice on charges of robbery, felony and misdemeanor drug possession, simple assault, retail theft and false reports to law enforcement authorities.

Defelice, who told Haggerty he is homeless, first gave authorities a bogus name, which police used in charging documents. He eventually admitted his true identity.

A short time later, Haggerty learned that state police in Mercer had been looking for Defelice since Oct. 8, when he escaped from the George Junior Republic juvenile detention center in Pine Township.

Police said Defelice fled the facility while being taken for drug and alcohol counseling.

He is in the Butler County Prison on $25,000 bail in connection with this morning's case.