PITTSBURGH — A 21-year-old man is facing charges after investigators said he led four kids to a series of smash-and-grab robberies at vape shops across Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh police charged William Yarbrough with 11 counts after they said they chased and caught him and the kids following a multi-hour crime spree Friday morning.
Surveillance video from a store on Forbes Avenue in Squirrel Hill shows Yarbrough and two of the boys smashing their way through a glass window, stealing a cash register and ransacking the shelves.
The burglary lasted 57 seconds, with two girls acting as lookouts.
Police said the group also hit a store in Bloomfield. Video from a third location showed the group trying to smash through a plexiglass window but giving up after an alarm began to sound.
Investigators said numerous vape shops had been targeted in that sector of the city over the past few weeks. They didn’t say if they believed Yarbrough was behind the other burglaries or if that was the work of other groups.
Investigators said an officer on an unrelated call saw a cash register being tossed out of the window of a pickup truck. With the assistance of a license plate reader, they chased the truck to a dead-end road near Mt. Oliver, where they arrested Yarbrough and turned the four kids over to their parents.
It’s not clear if any of the juveniles are facing consequences. Channel 11 has previously reported that the lack of beds in the county’s juvenile detention center, as well as what legal analysts call lenient sentencing by judges, has created a loophole in the criminal justice system where teens aren’t being held accountable for crimes.
Analysts say adults have realized this and are recruiting kids and teens to steal from stores on their behalf.
Police said Yarbrough was captured with $363 and stolen items in his backpack, as well as pieces of shattered glass.
He allegedly confessed to the thefts.
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