A Schuylkill County man is in jail on charges he took a scooter, a refrigerator, and tools off Pottsville front porches.
Joshua Ritter, 52, of Pottsville, is charged by Pottsville police with theft and receiving stolen property in both cases, along with loitering and prowling at nighttime in the scooter case. The scooter case has been waived to Schuylkill County Court. The second case, from a Howard Avenue porch, is awaiting a preliminary hearing.
Police were called to the 200 block of N. 8th Street on Sept. 27 after the homeowner reported his son’s gas-powered scooter had been taken off the front porch between about 5 and 5:30 a.m.
Video from a neighboring home shows a woman carrying an umbrella walking with a man of skinny build near N. 8th and Grant streets around 5:30 a.m., police say. The woman walked up N. 8th St. toward Vine St. and stopped about halfway. The man started down toward the house, turned around, and went back to speak briefly with her.
He then walked back down N. 8th St. while putting on what appeared to be a mask, according to police. Another camera angle shows him lingering around front porches in the 200 block before stopping in front of the house, moving a bike on the porch, and taking the scooter. He walked the scooter up N. 8th St. toward Grant St. and headed down Grant St. with it toward N. 9th St. about five minutes later, police say.
The homeowner valued the scooter at about $250, including the $100 in parts and labor they put into it.
Police identified the woman and went to her home on Howard Ave. on Oct. 1. The investigating officer learned another officer had handled a Sept. 14 theft report involving the woman and a man named Josh Ritter, and that Ritter matched the description of the man in the scooter video.
While outside the home, two officers walked through a nearby parking lot that sits well above the backyard and spotted the stolen scooter in the yard, visible through gaps in a roughly 4-foot wooden fence, according to police.
Looking for a way into the yard from the rear alley, the officer walked onto S. 6th St. and saw a thin man who matched the description of the man in the video. He identified himself as Josh Ritter, which the officer confirmed from a photo he had looked up earlier.
Ritter told the officer the woman was not home but that he watches her house when she isn’t, police say. After the officer explained why he was looking for her, Ritter told him about a small path from S. 6th St. to her backyard.
Ritter said he bought the scooter about a week earlier for $90 from a man named “Jimmy,” whose last name he did not know, in the Raman & Jass parking lot at N. 10th and W. Market streets. He also told the officer the scooter did not work.
The officer later compared body camera footage from that encounter with the surveillance video from the Sept. 27 and Sept. 14 cases and concluded Ritter was the man who took the scooter, police say.
The earlier case began Sept. 14, when a woman who lives in New York and regularly checks on her properties reported a theft from a property in the 700 block of Howard Avenue. She told police a number of items were missing from the front of the property, including a packaged refrigerator, copy paper, foil rolls, tools, two chairs, and a hose, worth about $610 in all.
She gave police camera footage, and officers identified Ritter and the woman from the scooter case from previous police encounters.
The footage shows Ritter on the front porch around 2 a.m. Sept. 9, going through items under a grill cover and filling his backpack with tools before leaving, according to police. He returned shortly after in a different outfit, pulled a tarp off the refrigerator, and took the refrigerator package and the chairs.
Around 8:30 a.m. Sept. 10, the woman was recorded going through items on the porch before leaving without taking anything. Later that night, police say, footage shows her and Ritter returning to take more tools and other items, and Ritter coming back alone shortly afterward to take more from the porch.
In the scooter case, Ritter was arraigned Oct. 15 before Magisterial District Judge James Reiley and committed to Schuylkill County Prison in lieu of $2,500 bail. He waived his preliminary hearing Oct. 19, sending the charges to Schuylkill County Court.
In the Howard Ave. case, police filed charges Oct. 6. Ritter was arraigned Oct. 14, and bail was set at $1,000, which he was unable to post. His preliminary hearing before Reiley is Nov. 23.
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