A Schuylkill County man waived his right to a preliminary hearing Tuesday morning on charges he was driving a stolen vehicle and had forged checks in that vehicle. The vehicle and checks were allegedly stolen from a West Brunswick Township business earlier this year.
Two other Schuylkill County men – Christopher Schoffstall and Tyler Tonitis – are currently facing charges in connection with a series of burglaries at that business, A+ Auto Towing Sales and Repair LLC. The two reportedly pushed in an air conditioner to gain access to the business office and then ransacked it, stealing five vehicles, paperwork for those vehicles, business checks, tools, and more.
Back in late-April, State Police and police in Pottsville pulled over an Acura Integra that was reported stolen from the business. Schoffstall was behind the wheel of that vehicle.
That same night, police pulled over a white Jeep Grand Cherokee and Christopher Harper, 38, was behind the wheel of it. Harper reportedly told police that he acquired the vehicle from Tonitis.
After securing a search warrant for the vehicle, police say they recovered checks inside drawn on the A+ Auto Towing Sales and Repair LLC account. Harper reportedly admitted to police that he got those checks from Tonitis, too, and that he wrote three checks to himself but only cashed one of them, for $181. He said he wrote out two other checks to other people but they were not cashed.
Harper reportedly said he forged the business owner’s signature on the checks by copying it from a photograph.
Harper remains locked up at Schuylkill County Prison on $50,000 in connection with this incident.
On Tuesday, before Magisterial District Judge AJ Serina, he waived a felony forgery charge along with misdemeanors for possessing a known counterfeit access device, receiving stolen property, possessing a controlled substance, and a summary offense for driving on a suspended license to Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas.
RELATED:
Pursuit on Pottsville’s East Side Results in Theft, Drug Charges
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