Brothers charged with gun thefts
Two Morris Township brothers were charged with multiple felonies for allegedly stealing handguns from an unlocked pickup truck parked in the 700 block of Hopkins Run Road in Morris Township.
Christopher Lee Areford, 30, of 106 Fonner Run Road, and Timothy Allen Hilverding, 27, whose last known address was 221 Parkview Knoll in Carmichaels, were each charged with two counts of theft and two counts of receiving stolen property following the incident early Wednesday morning.
Morris Township police Chief Michael Natale said Hilverding was at his brother’s residence when he “went on a 4-mile-walk around town in the middle of the night.”
Natale said Hilverding allegedly took two of three handguns that were in the center console of a truck belonging to Steve Fonner. Hilverding allegedly took cigarettes and loose change from three other unlocked vehicles in the area.
Natale said that since Fonner, a plow truck driver for the state Department of Transportation, was doing a snow plow route that morning, he noticed footprints near his truck and followed them all over the neighborhood, and back to Areford’s residence.
“He had a pretty good idea of where the guns were,” Natale said. “Their trailer is known to us as a drug activity house.”
Natale said he went to the trailer to look for the men Wednesday morning but was unsuccessful. At about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, Areford allegedly called Fonner and told him over the phone that Hilverding was the one who stole the guns and that Hilverding sold them for two Subutex pills or the equivalent of $60, according to the criminal complaint.
At 8:30 p.m., Fonner met with Areford behind the Family Dollar in Waynesburg, where Areford gave the “stripped-apart” guns back to him in a plastic shopping bag, the complaint said.
Fonner told police that Hilverding said during a phone call that night that he was “out stealing because he needed some smoke,” the complaint said.
Hilverding also was charged with four additional theft counts, two counts of sales of firearms and four counts of loitering and prowling at night.