admin @ Tue, 2005-10-25 17:46
In a 20-minute span early Monday, someone took a lottery machine from a Freeport Road drug store and a cash register from a business on Seventh Street in New Kensington.
Police think the same burglar or burglars were involved in both.
"It was smash and grab," Police Chief Chuck Korman said.
Police think the Town & Country Pharmacy, in the 2200 block of Freeport Road, was hit first at about 6:20 a.m. when the lottery machine was carted off.
Then at about 6:40 a.m. someone broke a window at Gentile's UDF Food Market in the 1700 block of Seventh Street. That's where the cash register was grabbed, police said.
The amount of loss wasn't made public, although Korman said the lottery machine is virtually worthless.
"They must have though there was a cash drawer in it and there wasn't," he said.
The culprit "threw a cinder block through the door and broke the glass," an aggravated Town & Country Pharmacy owner Anthony Roperti said.
"Having the computer will do them no good," he said. The machine needs to be connected to the state system and the Lottery Commission can tell if someone tries to do that.
The state owns the computer terminal that is worth about $3,500, state lottery spokesman Steve Kniley said.
"But it's impossible to try to connect to the system and print a ticket," he said.
"It's hard to understand what anybody would think they would be getting by taking this," Kniley said. "There's no profit in it."
"They could use that for notepaper, nothing else," Kniley joked.
It's unclear if the UDF Food Mart cash register contained money.
On Aug. 10, a man allegedly pointed a pellet pistol at the owner and demanded money.
The next day, allegedly the same man, Marlin Dale Stiffey Jr., 21, returned to the store to buy cigarettes. He was arrested and waived robbery and theft charges to court.
Also last summer, someone broke into the store to grab lottery tickets. That man was also charged.
Chuck Biedka can be reached at cbiedka@tribweb.com or (724) 226-4711.
This is cache, read story here