Top Case 2 - 1984: Zayre’s Department Store, Butler, PA Print

1984: Zayre’s Department Store, Butler, PA: "Shoplifting Suspect Chased from Butler Twp. to Evans City, Caught"

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zayreFrom The Butler Eagle newspaper article – A retail theft incident Thursday afternoon at a local discount store turned into a high-speed chase by three police departments when the suspect was pursued from Butler Township to Evans City and then headed back toward Butler before he was apprehended. In jail in lieu of $5,000 bond is John Doe, 25 of Penn Hills, Pittsburgh, whom Butler Township Police have charged with recklessly endangering another person, retail theft, fleeing police, speeding, reckless driving and criminal mischief. The episode began when a Butler Township Patrolman was called to Zayre’s Department Store around 12:42 pm Thursday, after a security guard reported a shoplifter had gotten away and fled in a green Cadillac.

The car was sighted on Route 68 and was chased west to Evans City where Evans City and Jackson Township police officers had erected a roadblock. The car then “spun around” in a front yard and took off east on route 68 back toward Butler, with the officer from Butler Township and police from Jackson and Evans City in pursuit. The suspect was finally stopped when the Jackson Township police cruiser forced him off the road in the “Buhl Flats” area of Route 68. He was taken into custody by Butler Township police, arraigned before the District Magistrate and lodged in the county jail. The suspect has denied that his name is “John Doe” and police were trying to confirm his identity. Allegheny County authorities had previously issued a fugitive warrant for the suspect.

Twenty-one packages of polaroid film were recovered in the back seat of the suspect's car.