South Pymatuning man charged in rash of vending machine thefts

By Patrick W. Connelly
Herald Staff Writer

HERMITAGE August 02, 2007 12:00 am

— A South Pymatuning Township man police say stole more than $1,300 in a barrage of vending machine break-ins was charged Tuesday with theft and criminal mischief.
Jordan Anthony Cataldi, 20, of 4734 Seneca Road, turned himself in to Hermitage police Tuesday after a summons was issued for him in late July.
The break-ins began occurring about June 5 when Cataldi quit his job with Young’s Vending, 200 Snyder Road, Hermitage, its owner Ben Cricks told police.
Through July 17, Cataldi stole $1,384 in cash and coins and caused about $900 in damage to machines in Buhl Farm park in Hermitage and in Transfer and West Middlesex, police said.
During the spree, police said Cataldi broke into the machines with a key he kept from working at Young’s and with bolt cutters. The majority of the machines robbed belonged to Young’s, police said.
Cricks alerted police to the thefts in June soon after he became aware his machines had been robbed and considered Cataldi a likely suspect, police said.
Between 7 p.m. June 16 and 9 a.m. June 17, padlocks on three machines were chopped with a set of bolt cutters at Spray and Vac Car Wash, 920 N. Hermitage Road, Hermitage, police said.
Because the money from the machines was emptied June 16 by the car wash’s owner, only about $6 was stolen, police said.
On the ground near the machines police found a packaging tag for a set of bolt cutters which Hermitage police detective Eric Jewell learned was bought two days earlier at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Hermitage.
After watching the store’s surveillance footage from the time the bolt cutters were purchased, one of the store’s workers was able to identify the buyer as Cataldi because she had gone to high school with him, police said.
When police talked to Cataldi in late July, he at first only admitted to stealing money from a machine at a Hermitage motel, but later admitted to a number of thefts, Jewell said.
After his arraignment Tuesday, police confiscated Cataldi’s key to the machines and the bolt cutters. A preliminary hearing is set for Aug. 10 before District Judge Ronald Antos in Farrell.