Cops in Bucks County Say Heroin Addicts Ripped Off Dozens of Homes
By Brad Segall
BENSALEM, Pa. (CBS) -- Authorities in Bucks County have closed the book on more than forty home burglaries in the area with the arrest of a Levittown, Pa. man whom they say was part of a burglary ring.
Police say the break-ins began in early 2012 throughout Lower Bucks County. They say about six to eight people would knock on doors, asking people if they wanted their gutters cleaned.
If there was no answer, they would break in and steal gold that police say was quickly turned into money at gold-buying stores in and around Philadelphia.
"They weren't walking out of the house with a 50-inch, flat-screen TV," says Bensalem public safety director Fred Harran. "They're looking for jewelry, things that they can go right to these cash-for-gold places and cash this stuff in and then buy their heroin."
Harran says the ring was made up of mostly heroin addicts who used the proceeds to fuel their addictions.
"It's all about drugs -- it's all supporting the drug habits," Harran tells KYW Newsradio. "Most of our crime... everything comes back to drugs somewhere down the road."
Harran says that 32-year-old Anthony Fanaro was taken into custody Wednesday and charged in 26 of those burglaries. Officials believe his take was somewhere around $100,000.
Bail was set at $1 million, of which Fanaro would have to post ten percent.
