Two men broke into at least five Levittown houses last month and stole hundreds of pounds of copper piping and other scrap metal that they sold to buy drugs, Bristol Township police say.
The suspects -- Matthew Kutler, 20, whose last known address was in Bristol Township, and Michael Hancock, 23, of Ironwood Road in the township -- allegedly targeted houses that were abandoned or up for sale.
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| Matthew Kutler (left) and Michael Hancock |
Between Sept. 4 and 12, Bristol Township police responded to a spree of burglary reports involving forced entry to homes on Appletree Drive, Mayflower Road, Grasspond Road, Petunia Road and Mintleaf Road.
In all five break-ins, police found that house piping, heating piping, baseboard heating fins, copper water pipes, heater parts and water valves had been roughly cut from heaters and pipes, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Also on Sept. 12, police responded to a complaint about a possible burglary-in-progress and arrested Hancock on theft and other charges. At the police station, Hancock admitted he and others were breaking into homes and “strip mining” metals in order to feed their heroin addictions, according to the affidavit.
Hancock said he developed his addition after he was injured and that he and others -- usually Kutler -- would break into vacant homes and steal the metal, according to police. He admitted hitting homes in Mill Creek, Plumbridge and Goldenridge sections of Levittown. All the charges so far are for thefts in September.
Hancock said that they sold the scrap metal at a local scrap yard and used the money to buy drugs, police said.
At Hancock’s Ironwood Road home, police said that they found “hundreds” of pounds of copper and heating fins, which Hancock said was the scrap from a burglary he did the day before on Petunia Road.
A week later, police spoke with Kutler, who also admitted he was a heroin addict and had been breaking into homes with Hancock and stealing metal that they sold as scrap, police said. Kutler said that he and Hancock often worked together, but at times other people filled in for whoever wasn’t present.
He also told police that they never went into any occupied homes.
“Kutler explained that he felt bad, but was addicted to heroin that he snorted,” according to court documents.
Police also spoke with Cynthia Meaden, 20, who lives with Hancock, and she reportedly admitted that she supplied the men with the home addresses and sometimes dropped them off and picked them up after break-ins. She also admitted to being a heroin addict, police said. An arrest warrant for Meaden has been issued in connection with a Sept. 11 burglary, according to online court records.
The list of addresses that police found in Hancock’s car contained house numbers and also the number of bedrooms and bathrooms in each house. Meaden said that Kutler used a digital device to access a real estate “For Sale” listing site to find vacant houses in Levittown to break into and steal the metals, according to court documents.
Along with the home address list, police also found tools that were reported stolen, scrap yard receipts, pawn slips, hand cutting tools, and work gloves in Hancock’s car, court records show.
Kutler and Hancock were arraigned on 17 and 25 felonies, respectively, including five counts each of burglary Wednesday before Bristol Township District Judge Joanne Kline, who set their bails at 10 percent of $50,000 apiece, though both men were already incarcerated at Bucks County prison on other charges.
The two men are also awaiting a preliminary hearing scheduled for later this month before Kline on misdemeanor charges of prowling at night and possessing an instrument of crime with intent stemming from a Sept. 6 incident, according to online court records.
Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia
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