BUTLER TWP — A suspected beer barrel bandit is behind bars after being cold busted Sunday.

Butler Township police said they caught Jonathan J. Curley red-handed allegedly swiping empty beer kegs from the loading dock behind the Days Inn on Route 8 south.

Investigators believe Curley, 24, of Pittsburgh intended to cash in the kegs at distributors or sell them to scrap metal yards, according to Butler Township Police Chief John Hays.

The stainless steel and aluminum barrels can fetch anywhere from $10 to $30 apiece, according to authorities.

Police allege Curley twice in five days targeted the Days Inn, stealing in all 14 empty kegs.

The defendant, who is charged with two counts each of theft and receiving stolen property, both first-degree misdemeanors, is in the Butler County Prison on $25,000 bail.

Police began investigating the keg caper last week after Days Inn employees found a number of empty beer barrels missing from the loading dock area, according to court documents.

The theft Jan. 14 was captured on surveillance video at the hotel, police said. The video showed a red Dodge Ram pickup pull into the parking lot near the loading dock just after 6 p.m.

Two people got out of the truck, equipped with a salt spreader on the bed and a plow package on the front, and load six kegs into the back of the truck, Hays said.

An employee about 2 p.m. Sunday spotted what he believed to be the same truck back at the loading dock, and immediately notified police.

Officers got there and stopped the truck just as it was about to leave. Curley was identified as the driver, police said. He was alone.

Patrolman Alan Mores said he counted five empty beer kegs in the truck bed. He opened the driver’s door and turned up three more barrels partially hidden under a flannel shirt.

When officers tried to question Curley, he invoked his right to remain silent.

“He wouldn’t talk to the officers,” Hays said, noting police do not know who his suspected accomplice was in the first theft.

But despite declining to speak with police, he allegedly let slip an admission and possible motive for the crime.

“Curley did tell (officers),” according to a police affidavit, “he took the kegs because he needed the money because he had relatives coming in from Chicago to go out to dinner.”