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Homeowner fends off intruders with gun

2 min read

Two masked intruders were confronted by a gun-wielding Upper St. Clair resident early Thursday and never made it inside his home.

Jeffrey Valperga heard the two men beating on the front door of his Walther Lane home around 3:45 a.m. when he fired a single shot.

The two would-be burglars, identified in court records as Kevin Caldwell, 30, of Wilkinsburg, and John Trowery, 27, of Castle Shannon, were later arrested at separate locations after fleeing in a vehicle.

“If I did not have a loaded gun, my family and I would be in a lot of trouble right now,” Valperga commented in a public Facebook post.

Valperga didn’t hit anyone with the gunshot, but the incident was not without an injury.

His 18-year-old son, Evan, chased the men and slipped on ice, falling and hitting his head.

“He suffered some head trauma … his CAT scan came back negative,” Valperga said.

Evan was the one who spotted the burglars around 3:30 a.m, according to Baldwin police.

He saw the two suspects going through his father’s car.

At first, Evan believed the two men might have been employees of his dad’s Bethel Park-based business, Affordable Decks and Additions, but alerted Valperga as the two started walking toward the house.

The ensuing manhunt that involved several police departments ended around 8 a.m. as officers found Trowery on Glass Run Road and deployed Tasers to arrest him.

He was found with an empty gun holster.

Caldwell, who was armed, was arrested along the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, according to court records.

Caldwell and Trowery are both in Allegheny County jail on $25,000 straight bond and face a Jan. 27 preliminary hearing in Baldwin Borough District court.

Each face various charges for drugs, receiving stolen property, criminal conspiracy and illegal possession of instruments of crime.

Trowery faces an additional charge of resisting arrest and Caldwell was charged with illegal possession of a firearm. The court clerk in Baldwin said charges directly related to the attempted break-in had not yet been filed.

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