FRACKVILLE - A man and woman living in a West Mahanoy Township storage shed who are accused of stealing more than $10,000 from an adjacent unit waived their right to preliminary hearings Wednesday afternoon.
Jeffrey Dargis, 40, of 329 W. Centre St., Shenandoah, and Jennifer L. Richardson, 36, of 28 N. Poplar St., Apt. 3, Mount Carmel, were charged with two felony counts each of theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property.
Police said the two have no permanent addresses.
By waiving their rights to hearings before Magisterial District Judge Christina E. Hale, both will have to answer to the charges against them in Schuylkill County Court.
West Mahanoy Township police Patrolman Lance Monaghan charged the two in connection with an incident about 3:20 p.m. Oct. 11, 2012, at Budget Storage Sheds in the Altamont section of the township. Monaghan said Kyle Marcinowski reported items were missing from his storage unit but the lock was not broken.
Several firearms, ammunition, coins and electronic equipment, all valuing about $10,000, were gone, he said.
Several weeks later, Monaghan said Marcinowski was going through the remaining items in the shed and discovered screws that were taken out of a sheet metal wall separating his unit from an adjoining shed. He said he could pull back the sheet metal and look into the other unit.
Monaghan said he remembered that on Nov. 4, Patrolman Ray Tonkinson was called to investigate two people living inside a shed at the site.
Mary Durose, manager of the facility, was contacted and she said that on Nov. 26, a woman named April Tovar told her Richardson was living in the storage shed.
Tovar said she gave Richardson a ride to Pottsville, where Richardson went to the Cash and Trade Store pawn shop with a photo album filled with silver dollars and received about $1,500 for them.
Monaghan said Richardson told Tovar she and Dargis got from one storage unit to the other by removing the screws from a wall.
Monaghan said he went to the Pottsville pawn shop and showed the driver's license photos of both Dargis and Richardson to the store manager, who recognized the two and provided three receipts for transactions between Sept. 15 and Nov. 24.
One of the receipts showed Dargis received $1,768 for a large amount of silver coins, the officer said.
As the investigation continued, Monaghan said he spoke with Tovar in December and the woman told him that, while she was traveling to Hazleton for medical appointments, Richardson came along and had a pillow case that contained several boxes of ammunition. Richardson asked her to stop at Yablonsky's hunting and sporting goods store in Brandonville to see if the store would buy the ammunition, Monaghan said.
Monaghan said Tovar told him that Richardson said the items were stolen and that she would give her a "cut of the money." Richardson also had a large scratch on her back and said it was caused by climbing between the walls of the sheds because Dargis was too large to fit, the officer said.
Finally, Monaghan said he went to Yablonsky's store, where the owner confirmed Richardson brought ammunition to him, saying one of her relatives had died and she had no use for it.
The owner bought several boxes of ammunition from Richardson that were then seized as evidence, Monaghan said.
After waiving their rights to hearings, both Richardson and Dargis were returned to Schuylkill County Prison, where they are being held on $25,000 straight cash bail each set by Hale at the time of their arraignment Dec. 27.