Kmart cleaners clean up
In about a month, two members of Kmart’s cleaning crew took more than $3,200 worth of merchandise.
Vance Taril Brown
Brian Allen Harrison
McMURRAY – Two McKeesport men who were working as janitors at Kmart in Peters Township were cleaning up at the same time.
Peters Township police arrested the pair Thursday for taking more than $3,000 worth of merchandise from the store on Washington Road in McMurray over a four-week span.
According to police, Vance Taril Brown, 25, of 2929 Jersey St., and Brian Allen Harrison, 24, of 2602 Milburn St., were employed by KBS Cleaning, a national cleaning service, to clean the store at night. The two were observed, beginning June 25, on video on multiple occasions removing items from the store without paying for them.
Peters police Chief Harry Fruecht said the men would first remove security devices from the merchandise to avoid setting off alarms and then take the items out of the store. Some of the items taken since June 25 include bottles of perfume, folding knives, a Monster Moto mini-bike, carpenter pants, baseball pants, Sylvania portable DVD player, Samsung Blu Ray player, sound bar, multiple televisions and sanding sponges. Total value of the items taken was $3,257, Fruecht said.
“They had been working there about a month,” Fruecht said of Brown and Harrison.
Police said when they arrived at the store early Thursday, $520 in merchandise was discovered in Harrison’s car. An additional $360 in merchandise was found hidden in the pair’s work hand cart and cleaning machine.
Brown and Harrison were both charged with retail theft and tampering with security devices. Because Harrison’s car was used, he was also charged with receiving stolen property, police said.
Both men were arraigned before District Judge James Ellis, who set bond at $10,000 cash for each. The pair were taken to the Washington County jail.