Suspect allegedly stole ATMs
Investigators allege a Penn Township man stole two automatic teller banking machines from business.
William T. Duncan, 35, is accused of taking ATMs from the Rittswood Golf Course in Middlesex Township in late November and from the Cheers Bar in Jefferson Township a month later.
According to court records, video surveillance equipment inside and outside of the bar captured images of the burglar and his getaway vehicle.
The video reportedly shows the suspect on Dec. 22 inside the Saxonburg Road bar damaging the currency storage area of a lottery machine and a jukebox.
Eventually, the burglar breaks into the currency area of a dart machine and a cigarette machine, which he emptied. He also removed currency from the cash register before turning his attention to the ATM, according to court records.
Court records allege the burglar dragged the machine out of the bar and into a parking lot.
Later, the defendant leaves with the banking machine in a 2008 Ford Escape.
Investigators were able to read the vehicle’s license plate number and trace it’s ownership back to Duncan’s girlfriend.
Police spoke to the girlfriend at her home in the Port-O-Call trailer park. They showed her a photograph of the suspected burglar, and she said he resembled Duncan, her live-in boyfriend.
Duncan, reportedly in the home at the time, allegedly came forth and confessed to both burglaries, according to court records.
During his statement, he allegedly told investigators where to find the bar’s banking machine. Court records say the machine and the currency inside equaled a combined value of $6,478.
In that case, state police charged Duncan with three counts of theft and receiving stolen property, two counts of criminal mischief and one count each of burglary, criminal trespassing, intentionally defacing property and loitering.
In the case at the golf course, court records say Duncan told investigators he’d disposed the $3,000 banking machine in the garbage bin of a business.
He also is accused of taking the $4,920 from the machine, currency from the cash register and about $30 in a charity box for the humane society.
In that case he is charged with two counts of theft, and one count each of burglary, criminal trespassing, receiving stolen property and criminal mischief.
Duncan was arraigned Thursday by District Judge Wayne Seibel of Evans City.
He was sent to the Butler County Prison and denied bail because more burglary charges are pending, according to court records.
Police investigators at Duncan’s arraignment said he also is a suspect in two other burglaries, at John’s Bar on Mars-Evans City Road in Forward Township and at Baker’s Backstreet Tavern on Jefferson Street in Evans City.
Duncan is scheduled to appear on the existing charges Wednesday at the Saxonburg office of District Judge Sue Haggerty.
