Adams Man Charged with BC3 Campus Car Break Ins Heading to Court

An Adams Township man charged with breaking into several cars parked at the Butler County Community College campus in Cranberry over the spring is heading to court.

According to the criminal complaint filed by Cranberry Township police, Jake Bradley Roach, 21, of East Village Green Boulevard, admitted to entering unlocked cars in Cranberry, mainly at the BC3 campus, over a six-week period and taking cash from them.

In a March 29 incident, he also smashed in the window of a vehicle parked at BC3 and took an iPod, a GPS and a purse with $200 in cash in it, according to the complaint.

He is charged with two counts of theft from a motor vehicle, two counts of receiving stolen property, two counts of disorderly conduct, four counts of possessing drug paraphernalia and one count of criminal mischief.

Police said they were called to the community college campus at about 12:30 p.m. March 29 for the window smashing incident. The owner of the car told police she parked her car at the school at about 10:20 a.m.

When she returned to her vehicle two hours later, she found the passenger side window broken in and items taken from the car.

In addition to the purse, cash, iPod and GPS, she also was missing credit cards and her identification, police said. The total value of the items stolen, plus the damage to the car, was about $837, according to the criminal complaint.

Police said surveillance video at BC3 showed the driver of a blue Toyota FJ Cruiser breaking into the woman’s car. The video was not clear enough for officers to discern the license plate number, according to the complaint.

A day later, surveillance video again showed the driver of the FJ Cruiser entering two more cars at the BC3 campus on March 30. A wallet containing $20 was taken from one unlocked car. Nothing was reported missing from the second unlocked vehicle, police said.

Roach was arrested April 3 after police spotted the FJ Cruiser at the Discovery House clinic in Cranberry and then pulled it over on Route 19. 

After a search of the vehicle, police found four stamps bags used to store heroin with the words “Grease Gorilla” on them, the complaint said.

Roach was then taken to the Cranberry Police Station, where he confessed to going into the cars and stealing items, the complaint said. 

Although Roach was seen in the surveillance video entering other cars in the BC3 parking lot, no one else came forward to report items missing from their cars at the time of the report, the complaint said.  

After waiving a preliminary hearing before Roach is scheduled to be formally arraigned Tuesday, Oct. 30 at the Butler County Court of Common Pleas.