A porch pirate who had previously pilfered packages was picked up by Police. 

Nigel Dews M/45, 100 blk. E. Lemon St. has been charged in (2) separate package theft investigations. 

On Thursday December 5, 2019 at approximately 1904 hrs. Off. Lapp was dispatched to an address on the 300 blk. N. Queen St. for a complaint of a theft that had occurred earlier that day. Off. Lapp was told by witnesses that they had observed a male, later identified as Nigel Dews, loitering outside of a business on N. Queen St. The witnesses saw Dews enter a secure vestibule area of a building and emerge a short time later, carrying multiple packages. 

One witness followed Dews to the 300 blk. N. Duke St. and confronted Dews, asking if the packages belonged to him. The witness took the packages, some of which had been opened and emptied and returned to N. Queen St. to contact Police. The witness returned to the building where Dews had exited with the packages and found that a secure door had been propped open. 

Off. Lapp was able to make contact with a property manager and obtained surveillance video from the building. The video showed Dews not only entered the secure vestibule, he also walked through several floors of the building, attempting to open doors, before returning to the vestibule to take a number of packages. 

Det. Toby Hickey conducted numerous follow up investigations in this case. Victims in this case were identified as Det. Hickey continued to look into it.  Through his investigative efforts he was able to identify Dews as the suspect. Dews was found to have an existing, unrelated warrant through Mifflin County. Det. Hickey filed a Criminal Complaint against Dews charging him with Burglary (F1) and Theft By Unlawful Taking (M1).A warrant was issued for the arrest of Dews. 

On Tuesday December 10, 2019 at approximately 1900 hrs. Dews was located by Off. Lapp and other members of Platoon B on the 100 blk. E. Lemon St. Dews had just stolen a package from the 1st blk. E. Lemon St. prior to Officers finding him. Off. Lapp filed a Criminal Complaint against Dews for that incident, charging Dews with Theft By Unlawful Taking (M1). Dews was taken into custody and transported to the Lancaster Bureau of Police station. Dews was processed and held for arraignment. Dews was later arraigned and committed to LCP in lieu of $75,000 bail. 

Det. Hickey, Property Crime Detectives and Patrol Officers continue to follow up on other theft cases. Additional Criminal Complaints could be filed at a later date. 

All persons accused of a crime are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.