A Schuylkill County man was jailed recently after police say he stole another man’s vehicle at a hospital emergency room. Later, he was found screaming in the middle of a street and drinking gasoline.
Police in Pottsville say they were called to Lehigh Valley Hospital at about 3:30 p.m. on April 18 for a reported theft of a motor vehicle.
A man says he was dropping off his mother-in-law at the ER and left the keys inside his vehicle with the engine running. However, when he went back outside to return to his vehicle – a 2024 Chevrolet Trax – it was gone and that an unknown man was driving away with it.
Security at the hospital said they had the entire incident on surveillance footage and two members of the suspect’s family were able to identify him as Jesse Bolinsky, 40, of Pottsville. Bolinsky, they say, had just left the hospital during a family argument there.
A short time later, State Police contacted Pottsville police and said a passerby just reported an unknown man was in the middle of a road in New Philadelphia and screaming, “I JUST STOLE A VEHICLE.” At the same time, that unknown man – who would later be identified as Bolinski – was also drinking gasoline at the time.
Police from Pottsville, Saint Clair, and Frackville responded to that call and found Bolinski and placed him into custody. They could now find the Trax, however.
Bolinksi was arraigned later that night before Magisterial District Judge Christian Lengel and chared with felony counts of theft and receiving stolen property as well as a misdemeanor count of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Lengel set bail at $50,000 and Bolinski was remanded to Schuylkill County Prison.
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