East Goshen resident identifies two young intruders
By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times
The two teens were friends, and since both were suspended from different schools on Thursday, they decided to commit a burglary, police said.
Officers from the Westtown-East Goshen Regional Police Department responded to the 100 block of Rossmore Drive in East Goshen Township at 11:42 a.m. for the report of a burglary in progress, police said. A witness told police that she observed two white males dressed in dark clothing inside the attached garage of a single-family home before they fled in opposite directions, police said.
The Westtown-East Goshen Regional Police Department responded to the area, requested assistance from area law enforcement to blanket the perimeter, and also advised the East Goshen Township Public Works Department to be on the lookout for individuals in dark clothing running in the area, police said.
At 11:49 a.m. members of the East Goshen Public Works Department spotted one possible suspect about a mile from the victim’s home in the area of Line and Warrior Roads. Police detained him until the witness confirmed that he was one of the intruders, identified by police only as a 16-year-old from West Goshen Township who was on suspension from a local high school.
As K-9 units from the Chester County Sheriff’s Office began a track from the victim’s home, Westtown-East Goshen detectives located the second suspect at 12:23 p.m., hiding behind shrubs in the 1500 block of Tanglewood Drive in East Goshen Township, a mile west of the victim’s home. The same witness positively identified him as the second intruder, police said.
Police said the second intruder was a 15-year-old male from East Goshen Township who had been suspended from a different local high school. Police said the two juveniles gained entry into the attached garage through an unsecured door and did not take any property because the witness interrupted them.
Police said the case had a positive outcome because the witness made a prompt report and provided detailed descriptions, members of the Public Works Department were observant, and local law-enforcement agencies offered immediate assistance, including police departments in West Goshen, Willistown, East Whiteland, and Malvern and the Chester County Sheriff’s Office.
The teens, who were not named because of their ages, were both charged with burglary and related offenses, police said.
