Juvenile who escaped Pittsburgh-area detention center steals car from DoorDash driver
LATROBE, Pa. (KDKA) — Multiple police agencies worked together Wednesday night to track down a stolen vehicle out of Latrobe.
Latrobe Police Chief Richard Bosco said that a 14-year-old who escaped from a local detention center was behind the wheel when police made the arrest. Bosco said over the last few weeks, four vehicles have been stolen and in three of those incidents, juveniles who escaped from the Adelphoi Detention Center were the ones behind the wheel.
On Wednesday night, Bosco said the juvenile stole a car from a DoorDash driver.
"The driver was making a delivery and feeling innocent enough he left the car door open and the engine running. And as he ran up the steps to make the delivery, a young man had escaped from a local juvenile detention home and seized the opportunity with the open door on the running car to make his escape," Bosco said.
Ring video sent to KDKA-TV showed a heavy police presence on Jefferson Street where police were tracking down the teen.
"It was just chaotic. It was chaotic," said Chelsea Huff, who watched as police showed up on her street Wednesday night.
"They just kept closing the perimeter in on the young man until he abandoned the vehicle in an alley and took off on foot. Then they were able to apprehend him and then he was faced with no responsibility those actions," Bosco said.
Just days before, Bosco said the same thing happened after three juveniles escaped the detention center in hopes of making their way back home to Harrisburg.
Bosco said technology inside the car helped officers track down the suspects.
"We have OnStar and Bluelink and other technologies now that are embedded in the majority of all new cars that give us the ability to track stolen cars. And not only does it give us the ability to track stolen cars, but it gives us the ability to shut them down at the most opportune moment," Bosco said. "In that particular case, when we were finally able to get a track on the vehicle, it was entering into the city of Harrisburg, and with the cooperation of the city of Harrisburg Police Department, we were able to disable the vehicle where they could actually apprehend the individuals and recover the vehicle."
Days before that, Bosco said another car was stolen in Unity Township.
"In this case, juveniles or young adults took the parent's car against their wishes," Bosco said.
Bosco said a fourth car was stolen and later abandoned in Jeanette. He said juveniles who escaped from the detention center were behind that incident.
He said his department is now working with the Adelphoi Detention Center to assist however it can to stop incidents like this from happening.
"It has become very frequent in the last two weeks, so anything that elevates that quickly and that level of frequency becomes concerning, and we want to try to do everything we can possibly do to assist them to stop it to make sure that nobody gets hurt or injured or in let alone the loss of life or property damage," Bosco said.
Bosco reminds residents to lock their cars and homes to prevent something like this from happening.
He said in all the recent car theft cases, the vehicles were left unlocked and sometimes the keys were even left inside the cars.