Alleged burglar thwarted
WAYNESBURG – Imagine being at work and receiving a cellphone alert that something was going on inside your unoccupied home. It happened to Keith McClure Jr. Monday morning, as he watched someone stealing his home computer.
The alleged burglar, Kevin R. Yeager, 29, of 323 S. Washington St., Waynesburg, is being held in Greene County jail on $35,000 bond on charges of burglary, criminal trespass, theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property, disorderly conduct and a summary drug offense.
McClure quickly called 911 after watching the intruder from his cellphone. Waynesburg Borough police Officer Nick Remmie was the first policeman on the scene, but McClure’s father, Keith McClure Sr., arrived at the residence shortly before Remmie, not knowing someone was inside. He began to punch in a key code that opens a side door.
“I saw somebody going into the house, and then I heard someone yelling, ‘Hey!’ from the other side of the house. The homeowner’s father spooked Yeager out, and I took off after him,” Remmie said. “I followed him through two backyards and then heard a car peeling tires down West Street.”
Remmie caught the car at the intersection of West Street and Third Avenue. Its occupants said they saw a man run behind a residence at 341 Third Ave.
By this time, off-duty Waynesburg police Officer Asa Winters and his police dog, Izzy, Lt. Dale Phillips and Chief Rob Toth arrived. Toth said officers set up a perimeter to contain Yearger when Remmie spotted the man hiding behind a bush outside the home at 341 Third St. and ordered him to surrender.
“I asked him (Yeager) why he ran. He said he heard the keypad being punched and thought it was police,” Remmie said. “If he had a gun, it could have been a really bad thing when he was confronted by the homeowner’s father.”
Just days after two police officers were killed in New York, Toth said, “You just don’t know what you may face out there. There was no way to know if the guy (Yeager) had a gun.”
He praised Remmie for following police procedure by the book in apprehending the suspect and gave a nod to Winters, who stepped in with Izzy to help locate Yeager.
“Asa brought the dog out to start tracking him, and then (Remmie) saw him hiding behind the bush,” Toth said. “It was just by chance that I saw Asa and told him to grab his gear and get the dog.”
This was the second time in a month McClure’s residence was burglarized, and, during questioning by Remmie, Yeager allegedly admitted he burglarized the McClure residence twice, according to the criminal complaint filed with District Judge Lou Dayich. Additional charges may be filed later for the first break-in and for another burglary on Huffman Street.
“I was burglarized a month ago, and I decided to look into security systems,” McClure said.
The cost of mainstream security systems were more than he wanted to spend, he said.
“I found a deal at Walmart that was about $100 for two cameras, and it works as long as your Wi-Fi in your house is good and turned on,” he said.
All it took to hook up the system was downloading an app to his cellphone and then synching it to the security cameras. The system is both motion and sound sensitive, triggering the cameras and then sending an alert to the phone, according to McClure.
The purchase saved McClure from losing the computer, headphones, an Xbox 360 with games, a speaker, cordless screwdriver and a box of whiskey, among other items, found inside a backpack seized as evidence. Some items were discarded during the pursuit, said Toth.
McClure provided police a video of what happened inside his home during the burglary. Police said they also found two crack pipes on Yeager, resulting in the drug charge.
Yeager’s arrest Monday also resulted in a bail revocation for his arrest on drug charges in 2013. That case had not yet been adjudicated. Yeager’s preliminary hearing on those charges is scheduled for 11 a.m. Dec. 30.
In that case, Yeager was arrested for allegedly selling heroin on two separate occasions to an undercover informant working with Greene County Drug Task Force.
Yeager’s preliminary hearing on the burglary charges is scheduled for 10:45 a.m. Dec. 30 before Dayich.