Facebook foils thief suspect in Uniontown
Uniontown city police on Tuesday used Facebook and a little help from their “friends” to catch a robbery suspect.
Lt. Tom Kolencik said the arrest of Audra Trombetta, 40, of Uniontown happened about an hour after she allegedly took $136 from a money bag that was accidentally dropped outside PNC Bank on East Main Street.
Kolencik said police posted on Facebook a photo from a surveillance camera and asked for information regarding the suspect's whereabouts.
The response was immediate.
“We started getting information like crazy,” he said. “We posted the information in less than an hour (of the incident), and we received our first tip within minutes” of the posting.
According to a criminal complaint filed by Kolencik, PNC Bank manager Dean Crawford told police he was going into the bank with two cash bags at 2:35 p.m. Once inside, Crawford said, he realized he had dropped one bag outside. When he went outside to retrieve the bag, a witness told Crawford that a woman had picked up the bag and walked away.
Crawford told police he followed Trombetta and yelled to her that she “had something of his,” according to an affidavit of probable cause.
Crawford followed Trombetta and confronted her inside the Sunoco A-Plus on West Main Street, but she denied taking the bag. It was later recovered inside a nearby parking garage, police said.
Kolencik said police used a surveillance video from the Sunoco to obtain a photo of the suspect, posted it on Facebook and received several tips identifying the woman in the photo as Trombetta. He said Trombetta could be seen taking the money from the bag and transferring it to her purse.
Police went to her house and found Trombetta wearing the same clothes as the woman in the video.
Kolencik said Trombetta confessed to taking the money, which she used “to pay two bills, for cigarettes, laundry money and money for her son's lunch,” according to the affidavit.
Trombetta provided police with a written confession and was charged before District Judge Michael M. Metros with theft and receiving stolen property. A preliminary hearing will be scheduled.
“We've used Facebook in the past, and it's always been helpful,” Kolencik said. “It's helpful in helping us access information, but we also use it to inform people of road hazards, parade routes, and pass along other similar information.”
Chuck Brittain is a contributing writer for Trib Total Media.
