EAST BUTLER — A one-time employee allegedly stole more than $40,000 worth of equipment at a custom bent and decorative glass manufacturer while he worked there.

But the suspected thief, David F. Marchinoski, 30, of Concord Township, needed money fast, in part to feed a drug habit, authorities said.

He sold the stolen property for a tiny fraction of its value. “He got about $1,000,” said Trooper Joshua Anderson.

State police last week charged Marchinoski with the inside job last year at Standard Bent Glass on Lincoln Avenue in East Butler.

Troopers arrested him Tuesday allegedly in the act of stealing scrap from Biofab Products. in Summit Township, a metal fabricating firm less than two miles from Standard Bent Glass.

Charges in that suspected crime are pending, police said.

Following his arrest, Marchinoski confessed to stealing from Standard Bent Glass, according to investigators.

The defendant claimed that he and a co-worker took aluminum racks from an interior storage area at the business during non-working hours.

The racks are used in the processing of glass products at the plant, Gary Hubbard, the company controller, told the Butler Eagle.

Hubbard said Marchinoski worked only briefly there. He described the suspect as a former “temporary employee not on our payroll.”

The defendant worked at Standard Bent Glass from June 24 to Oct. 21.

“He was let go for other reasons (than the alleged theft),” Anderson said of Marchinoski, declining to elaborate.

Police believe Marchinoski, possibly with the co-worker who has yet to be charged in the case, made at least three trips to the company during the alleged theft spree.

Investigators eventually tracked the stolen racks to Bob’s Auto Salvage on Route 38 in Oakland Township, where he sold them.

Hubbard said some of the racks have been recovered. “But,” he acknowledged, “less than half.”

Marchinoski was arraigned Tuesday on charges of burglary, trespass and theft, all felonies. A preliminary hearing is to be held at District Judge Lewis Stoughton’s office in Chicora.

Meanwhile, police suspect that after hitting Standard Bent Glass, Marchinoski targeted the Biofab facility nearby, stealing scrap metal.

“He made multiple trips there,” Anderson said.

In those thefts, the trooper said, the defendant’s girlfriend allegedly acted as a lookout or getaway driver. Charges against her in the Biofab case also are pending.

Police allegedly caught the couple red-handed in the most recent theft early Tuesday morning at the Summit Township business. But after troopers boxed in their would-be getaway vehicle, both took off running. They were quickly chased down.

Both allegedly admitted their roles in the Biofab thefts.

When police searched Marchinoski, they found him with suspected heroin.

“I think that (finding) goes to the motive in all the thefts,” Anderson said.