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Police: Greene County man wrecks getaway vehicle used in burglary

2 min read
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A Wind Ridge man was charged with burglary after police responded to a crash involving his alleged getaway vehicle.

State police charged William Harold Barnhart, 28, with burglary, receiving stolen property, theft by unlawful taking and criminal trespass before Magisterial District Judge David Balint on Friday.

Barnhart was charged after police were dispatched to a single-vehicle accident along Roy Furman Highway in Center Township at 4:49 p.m. May 5.

Police arrived to find a dark-blue Jeep bearing a West Virginia license plate on its roof, and spoke to the driver, identified as Barnhart. As troopers investigated the accident, they received information that a burglary was witnessed minutes prior to their arrival, court paperwork noted.

A witness to the burglary who was not identified in the complaint told police that he saw a white man with a brown beard trying to steal something from a property along the highway. Police said the witness told them the man was driving a dark-blue Jeep with a West Virginia plate.

According to the charges, the witness attempted to stop the Jeep. When he heard the sirens, the witness went to the scene and saw the accident, police said, and identified it as the vehicle that had fled.

The victim of the burglary, Charles Richard Ely, gave police a list of items stolen from his property, including a welder, boxes of sockets, chainsaw, hatchet, hip hoist with a hand crank, post-hole digger, air tank, metal grinder, and animal trap, floor jack, impact wrench, electric drill and truck chain, all valued at $1,355.

Police issued a search warrant for the Jeep and recovered the items that Ely identified as being stolen.

Barnhart is free on $15,000 bond and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing at 3:15 p.m. June 16 before Balint.

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