By Matt Snyder
MERCER — If you’ve spent this winter cursing the ice and snow, then how about a tip of the hat to Old Man Winter — he may have helped nab a burglar on Monday.
Chad Anthony Combs, 38, of 224 S. Otter St., Mercer, kicked in the back door of an Apache Trail home in Coolspring Township after knocking and getting no answer, state police said. He ran away when he realized a 17-year-old girl was inside.
Combs tried to high-tail it out of the residential neighborhood, but his van got stuck in the snow.
He allegedly asked the 17-year-old, who had locked a screen door because Combs had already kicked in the other one, if he could come in and call for some help.
She told him she had a cell phone and had already called 911, police said. The girl actually couldn’t get the cell working properly, but had texted her mother so that she could call police instead.
Combs managed to get his van unstuck and drove off, police said. A trooper found him some distance away with a damaged back tire.
Combs faces charges of burglary, criminal trespass, and criminal mischief before District Judge Lorinda L. Hinch, Mercer.
In November, state police said daytime burglaries were happening in Findley, Jackson, Worth, and Wolf Creek townships, all near Coolspring Township. Police have not said if Combs is linked to these burglaries.
In the township burglaries, suspects would knock on the doors of empty-looking homes and give excuses if someone answered. If it was empty, they forced their way in, police said.
Mercer Police Chief David Fockler wouldn’t say if he suspected Combs was connected to recent rash of burglaries in the borough.
Fockler is letting state police conduct their investigation, but burglaries in the borough have continued over the last several months. Another one on Friday happened on Vogan Drive, Fockler said, bringing the total number up to about nine.
Other burglaries happened in homes on Pitt, Butler, Home, and Market streets, which had been broken into for cash and prescription painkillers, Fockler said.
He has said in the past that these borough burglaries are possibly linked to the ones in the township.
Combs is currently in Mercer County Jail on $100,000 bond.
