Courts. (Credit: Flickr/Creative Commons)
The defendant heads to county arraignment in December on three felonies.
A Spring City man accused of stealing copper piping, wiring, radiator parts and a skeleton key from an Upper Providence Township home heads to arraignment in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court on fewer felonies.
Brian Todd Bliss, 34, of the 500 block of South Main Stret, was charged in August by police with a felony and associated conspiracy count each of burglary, criminal trespassing theft by unlawful taking, and receiving stolen property.
However, at a Nov. 6 preliminary hearing, all felony burglary charges and all conspiracy charges were dropped, with only three felonies waived to county – Criminal trespassing, theft, and receiving stolen property, per court records.
Police were contacted at 11:09 a.m. Aug. 1 by a man who reported his property had been burglarized, with copper stolen from the home and the house ransacked.
Upon arrival by police and detectives, the homeowner told police he arrived home in the morning and found the front storm door and front main door ajar, per the complaint. Upon entering his house, he found multiple rooms where copper pipes were cut, but not entirely removed, from the walls, police said.
Furthermore, lots of wiring was ripped out from exposed walls and clothes were thrown around the master bedroom, police said.
Someone even defecated in the second-story bathroom, which had no running water, according to the complaint.
The homeowner told police an old skeleton key used to secure the home’s front door was missing: It was left in a lock of another door of the home, per the complaint.
Police canvassed the area for video footage that may have captured a suspect or vehicle, finding a video allegedly showing Bliss walking from the area of the home and entering a black Honda Accord in the parking lot of Fitzwater Station.
Police said the car then drove to the front of the Canal Street home, where large duffel bags are loaded into the car.
Neighbors and witnesses told police that a black Honda Accord was outside the home the morning of Aug. 1; the theft was captured on nearby video surveillance, police said.
Police discovered the Accord belonged to Stanley Antosh, who was driving the car, along with passengers Bliss, Jack Fitzgerald and a female passenger, police said.
On Aug. 2, police spoke with an investigator from Spring City Police Department regarding Antosh and the Accord, per the affidavit. Antosh, police said, was involved in a suspected DUI crash on the morning of Aug. 1 at 7:30 at Gay and South Main streets in Spring City, driving a black Honda Accord with the same registration used in the alleged theft.
Police said Antosh told Spring City Police that a passenger, identified as Bliss, fled the scene after the crash.
Antosh’s Honda was impounded and police saw, in plain view, a dark-colored backpack on the rear driver’s side seat of the car, police said.
On Aug. 5, police conducted a search warrant on the car and its contents, recovering large black duffel bags from the trunk of the car, per the affidavit.
The bags contained cut copper pipes and rolled wiring, police said. Multiple black backpacks with cutting tools and instruments were also found in the car, per the report.
On Aug. 7, police interviewed Antosh, who admitted burglarizing the home on Canal Street on the morning of Aug. 1 and defecating in the bathroom, per the affidavit, as well as carrying the black duffel bags from the home to the Honda, police said.
Police said the four individuals involved in the burglary drove to Phoenixville Borough afterward, where Antosh dropped off Fitzgerald and the female passenger. Then, Antosh crashed his car in Spring City, where Bliss, police said, grabbed a bag from the car and fled the area.
Police said Antosh gave permission to search his living area on Bridge Street in Spring City, which was a makeshift garage/shed, and was related to another burglary case, in order to find Bliss.
On Aug. 8, police and detectives searched Antosh’s living space, where a large skeleton key was found on a bar stool, police said.
A resident of the home told police that the key was gifted to Antosh from Bliss about a week prior to the burglary, per the affidavit.
On Aug. 13, the skeleton key was taken to the Canal Street home, shown to the homeowner, and was confirmed to be the key to the front door of the burglarized home, police said.
On Aug. 19, police interviewed Fitzgerald, who admitted burglarizing the home with the intention of helping Bliss steal copper, police said.
Fitzgerald told police Bliss drove the black Honda early in the morning to pick him up, and upon arrival at the victim’s home, found Antosh on location cutting copper pipes, police said. Fitzgerald, police said, admitted to carrying a bag of copper from the home to the Honda.
Bliss remains at Montgomery County jail in lieu of $5,077 cash bail, due to a probation detainer, per court records. He is set to be arraigned at county on Dec. 18.
