Surveillance Video Catches Burglar After Multiple Break-Ins
UNIONTOWN (KDKA) -- The Value Tobacco Shop on West Fayette Street in Uniontown was burglarized Friday and the entire break in was caught on surveillance video.
The burglar went into the store twice and then returned a third time to try and clear his tracks.
What makes this so amazing is the owner says he leaves the lights on and has music playing at night. And as you'll see, this happened on a busy street where people were driving and walking past almost constantly.
The surveillance video shows the suspect trying to break the third window from the right on the building with his elbow for several minutes. He eventually makes his way inside, cigarette in his mouth.
The suspect stumbles through the store, swipes a board of quarters meant for the Leukemia Society along with some cigarettes and leaves the way he came in.
"The suspect lives approximately 100 yards, 200 yards from the scene," Uniontown police detective Donald Gmitter said. "So he was in close proximity to his residence."
Perhaps that's why, a half hour later, he returns.
This time he tries to get into the cash register and fails. He ends up taking a red can of Folger's coffee along with some tobacco and rolling supplies.
He can be seen wandering through the shop looking for items to take. The owner described him as "a kid in a candy store."
"He was like, 'I've got all this stuff I can take. What am I gonna take?'" owner Robert Aranza said. "He couldn't make his mind up. There was too much going on."
The suspect later comes back for a third time and tries to clean up, putting the pieces of the broken glass window back together.
Police were able to quickly identify the suspect in the surveillance video as 53-year-old George Rhome.
Owner Robert Aranza says Rhome is a daily customer to the shop, where people come to roll their own cigarettes together to save money. Rhome was place in the Fayette County Jail on $10,000 bond.
The owner tells KDKA-TV's Trina Orlando he's glad police found the burglar but hopes Rhome won't do extended time in prison.
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