State Police have investigated two cases involving auto dealerships over the last several months.
The investigations have led to arrests in both cases according to trooper Kenneth P. Hofer, Jr. The officer works in the auto fraud division at the Hollidaysburg-based barracks.
In one of the cases, a 43-year-old Bellefonte man, William Merle Reeder, went to Dan Parson’s Used Cars in Snyder Township with a 1988 Cadillac Deville on November 2 of last year.
State police said Reeder then sold the car to the dealership for $900. It was later discovered the car had been stolen from a private owner in Clearfield County.
Trooper Hofer explained that Reeder allegedly made a deal with the private owner for a car that was advertised for sale outside the owner’s property. Hofer said Reeder got the owner of the car to give him the vehicle and the title with the promise he would return with the funds to purchase it based on insurance money he claimed he was due to receive shortly. Hofer said there was no insurance check and Reeder never returned to the owner to pay for the vehicle.
Hofer said that Dan Parson’s Used Cars had previously been given a summons for failure to verify a title of a vehicle it was purchasing. Reeder was charged with receiving stolen property at Magisterial District Judge Fred Miller’s office.
Trooper Hofer also investigated another auto dealership case which dates back to last summer.
According to a state police press release, sometime between 6:15 p.m. on July 1 and 7:30 a.m. on July 2, two Altoona men went to Tim’s Auto Sales & Service in Antis Township.
Upon arriving at the location, one of the men, 20-year-old Robert James Myers, broke out a glass window at the rear of the dealership on East Pleasant Valley Boulevard.
Myers was allegedly able to gain entrance into the garage area. Once inside, he located 28 certificates of emissions and a black Brinks security box which contained cash and change. Myers removed the items and both he and another man, 35-year-old Richard Brian Detwiler, fled the scene unnoticed.
As a result of the investigation into the incident, Detwiler was charged with criminal conspiracy to commit burglary, theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property.
Myers was charged with burglary, theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property and criminal mischief.
Charges against the men were filed at Magisterial Judge Miller’s office in Snyder Township.
