2 arraigned in robbery of 93-year-old in Monongahela
Two former residents of Monongahela were arraigned Monday on charges they robbed a 93-year-old woman outside a grocery store last month.
Angela Beresh, 31, and her boyfriend, Joshua Verno, 25, are accused of robbing the elderly woman Oct. 8 behind the Foodland store at 1223 W. Main St.
Monongahela police Chief Brian Tempest said surveillance video shows the two loitering in the store as they apparently waited for the victim. They went up to the 93-year-old and asked her for $2, which she pulled from a bank envelope she had in her hand, the chief said.
“Then they start up a conversation with her,” Tempest said. “They asked what she was doing, and when she told them she was waiting for a taxi, they offered her a ride home.”
They pushed her buggy outside toward the back of the store.
“They slapped the money out of her hand, grabbed it and ran down the railroad tracks,” Tempest said. “We found the bank envelope and sweatshirts they wore behind the library.”
Tempest said the two made off with $200. He said the elderly woman told police that her hand hurt where it had been hit, but otherwise she suffered no injuries.
“She was pretty sharp,” Tempest said of the elderly victim. “She knew exactly what she had bought at the store.”
Beresh and Verno were arraigned before District Judge Mark Wilson on charges including three counts of robbery and one count each of conspiracy, theft and simple assault. Wilson set bond at $500,000 on each suspect. Beresh was placed in Washington County jail. Verno, who was arraigned by video, remains in Westmoreland County jail, where he faces other charges including burglary, theft, criminal trespass and retail theft. The two face a preliminary hearing Dec. 3 before Wilson.