Jan 16, 2015 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – The man caught by Waynesburg Borough Police while burglarizing a home at 656 Huffman St., thanks to the ingenuity of the homeowner who installed a security system that sends alerts to his cellphone, pleaded guilty to numerous charges in Greene County court.

Kevin R. Yeager, 29, of 323 S. Washington St., is being considered for entry into the State Intermediate Punishment Program to be followed by 5 years of consecutive probation.

Yeager was arrested Dec. 22 for the burglary at the home of Keith McClure Jr. on Huffman Street.

At the time, Yeager was scheduled for a preliminary hearing for his arrest on unrelated drug charges brought by the Greene County Drug Task Force.

The task force charged Yeager in November with four counts of manufacture, delivery or possession with intent to manufacture or deliver a controlled substance; conspiracy to manufacture, deliver, or possess with intent to manufacture or deliver a controlled substance; criminal use of a communication facility; and two counts of possession of a controlled substance by a person not registered or licensed for selling heroin to a confidential informant on two separate occasions in 2013.

While in custody for the Dec. 22 arrest, Yeager confessed to additional burglaries, including an Oct. 30 burglary at the McClure residence that prompted McClure to install the security system that helped catch Yeager.

The purchase saved McClure from losing the computer, headphones, an Xbox 360 with games, a Bose speaker, cordless screwdriver and a box of Crown Royal Whiskey, among other items inside a backpack seized as evidence.

Alerted by the system via a security app on his phone, McClure saw Yeager inside his residence on Nov. Dec. 22 and phoned police. Yeager pleaded guilty to both McClure burglaries in addition to two others. The first was an Oct. 23 burglary at the residence of Christopher Lee Yeager, Kevin Yeager’s brother, where he gained access by breaking a window to steal a 58-inch television and a Sony Playstation 4. Yeager used the same method of entry for an Oct. 30 burglary at the residence of Sheryl Onderjko at 651 Huffman St.

Yeager told police he broke Onderjko’s window and stole three laptop computers valued at $2,000.

The combined charges for the four burglaries include four counts each of burglary, criminal trespass, theft by unlawful taking, three counts of receiving stolen property, two counts of criminal mischief and one count each of prohibited acts and disorderly conduct.

The department of corrections will determine if it will accept Yeager into the SIPP following a drug and alcohol assessment. If he is determined to be ineligible he will be returned to Greene County for resentencing. In addition to SIPP, Yeager must pay more than $9,000 in restitution, plus court costs, fees and fines by the end of his sentence.