One Suspect Arrested In Connection To Abandoned Post Office Fire
WESTMORELAND COUNTY (KDKA) – Two men are accused of setting an old post office in Westmoreland County on fire.
Police say they were inside stealing copper wire earlier this month when they accidentally started the fire. Police tracked down one suspect, but are still looking for the other.
State Police say the suspects in this incident stole some wire and wanted to burn the insulation off of it. Simple enough when you consider it, but how they went about doing it ended with them being charged with arson in addition to theft.
The damage is clearly visible on the outside of 102 Semler Street in Grapeville, and troopers say Douglas Jay Morgan and Joseph Peretto are responsible.
"These men went and stole some copper wire and were also taking wire from the area they were at, which was the old Grapeville Post Office," Tpr. Stephen Limani of the Pennsylvania State Police said.
Not content with just having the wire to cash in as scrap, the men decided to do something more.
"To strip the wire, instead of peeling it apart, they started a fire inside the building," Limani said.
Their apparent thought – burn the insulation off the wire. It worked, but it also caught the building on fire in broad daylight. There was a lot of smoke.
"There was a series of events these two individuals took on that really didn't make sense," Limani said.
As the fire grew, someone came to see what was up. The witness ended up knowing Joe Peretto. That person got a look at a license plate of the car Peretto and Morgan allegedly used as they quickly left the scene and headed to a scrapyard.
"That scrap company takes the identification of the individuals that show up at the property, along with the license plate information from the vehicle," Limani said. "That license plate matched the one that we had at the scene."
After evading investigators for a while, Morgan was booked on arson and theft-related charges. He's in jail on $100,000 straight cash bond.
Peretto, who faces the same charges, remains on the run. If you know of Peretto's whereabouts, investigators want to hear from you.
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