Investigates

Police exploring links in rash of car thefts as more incidents reported farther west in Allegheny Co.

PITTSBURGH — A rash of car thefts that was targeting the South Hills appears to be migrating to the west in Allegheny County after Coraopolis police made an arrest.

Coraopolis, Ohio Township and Kennedy can now be added to the growing list of areas targeted by a suspected car-theft ring. Police said they believe it’s mostly juveniles and young adults at the center of the operation.

“There was a police van out there. We heard the police out there and I said ‘What’s all the commotion?’,” said Roseann Rephage.

Rephage lives in the State Manor apartments, where 18-year-old Justin Nicholas was arrested early Wednesday morning by Coraopolis police. Officers were called to the area near Vance Avenue and Fleming Street and found one man in the act of breaking into a car. He ran off, but police caught two other people behind one of the cars, including Nicholas.

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The police report said that when Nicholas was searched, he had car keys in his pocket that belonged to a 2014 Honda Pilot SUV. That vehicle was reported stolen by Ohio Township Police.

Investigators said they are taking a look at possible links between the rash of car thefts in the South Hills and this recent incident.

“I don’t want to be around that and it’s really freaky to me,” Helen Rephage said.

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“You never know if it is going to escalate to getting hit on the head or robbed or something like that,” Roseann Rephage said.

Several of the stolen cars from the past month have been ditched on the North Side. Nicholas' home address is also on the North Side, and police said that could also be a link to the car thefts. Investigators said they’re working to match fingerprints from the stolen cars to any of the recent juvenile arrestees.