PITTSBURGH — Police were called to the Heinz Lofts on the North Shore around 11:30 a.m. Thursday after reports that someone was trying to get into a maintenance room from underground.
Pittsburgh Public Safety officials told Channel 11 that the person or persons were attempting to steal electricity and had lifted a boiler grate to get underground.
A 911 dispatcher referred to the incident as “tunneling” from the building next door.
It’s unclear exactly where it was happening, but there is an abandoned building attached to the Heinz Lofts. It’s covered with graffiti and has multiple large broken windows.
“It’s been a pretty frequent problem with people getting in and out there,” Maura Milligan said. She’s lived at the Heinz Lofts for about three years.
While we were there, we did see a number of people inside that building.
“I’m just curious on who did it and why. Interesting they’d crawl through a grate and steal electricity,” resident Payton Wilkerson said. “It seems way too easy to do.”
Milligan told Channel 11 she’d like to see tighter security.
“If it was that easy for someone to tunnel under the building, I would hope that more security measures were put in place,” she said. “It is a little unnerving.”
We did reach out to Heinz Lofts management multiple times. We were told they had no comment and called the issue “a little overblown.”
They declined to press charges.
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