A 35-year-old Tunkhannock man stole an SUV in Blakely and then tried to steal an ATM from a business in the borough, police said.<\/p>\n
Police charged Tanner Avery with two counts of theft by unlawful taking and one count of criminal mischief.<\/p>\n
Officers responded to Tobacco Land, 1333 Main St., Blakely, around 1:12 a.m. on Jan. 14 for the report of a vehicle that crashed into a building, police said.<\/p>\n
Police found an unoccupied box truck with front-end damage that was later determined to be stolen from Flowers Baking Co. in Hanover Twp., according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n
Officers observed heavy damage to an outdoor ATM that was pushed into Tobacco Land, causing extensive damage to the front of the building, police said.<\/p>\n
After viewing surveillance footage from the business, investigators determined the crash was intentional, as the box truck struck the ATM at a high rate of speed, officers said.<\/p>\n
An unknown man exited the box truck wearing a gray sweatsuit and a blue shirt, covering his face and head, police said.<\/p>\n
A silver Lincoln Navigator driven by Avery, and later determined to be owned by Kasandra Compton of Peckville, entered the parking lot and backed up to the ATM, according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n
Both men attempted to take the ATM but were unable and left the scene, police said.<\/p>\n
When officers went to Compton\u2019s residence, she reported that her vehicle had been stolen but said she could not provide information about any possible suspects, according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n
Compton later admitted that Avery called and said he was going to take her vehicle but she didn\u2019t tell police at the time because she\u2019s extremely scared of him, police said.<\/p>\n
Compton\u2019s vehicle was later located by state police who were dispatched to a vehicle fully engulfed in flames in Brooklyn Twp., Susquehanna County, officers said.<\/p>\n
Officials from Flowers Baking Co. reported the stolen truck to Hanover Twp. police and noted it\u2019s common for truck drivers to leave the keys in their vehicles after their shifts, police said. Officials added that Avery, a former employee who was fired several months ago, would know keys are left in the truck, according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n
During a recorded conversation with a confidential source, Avery mentioned a plan to use a truck to crash into an ATM and steal the money, police said. Avery also continually denied involvement before stating he was going to \u201cgo on the run,\u201d according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n
Additionally,\u00a0Dalton Police Officer Wanda Crespo told investigators the department received reports of attempted thefts at several businesses \u2014 Dalton Do-It Center, Bluestone Laundromat and PS Bank, all located on or near the Lackawanna Trail Highway \u2014 and that the vehicle involved was reported stolen out of Blakely, according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n
Upon viewing surveillance video from Bluestone Laundromat, investigators determined the stolen Navigator was being driven by Avery, police said. A man in the passenger seat clearly matched the description of the other person seen in surveillance video from the crimes in Blakely, but has not been identified, investigators said.<\/p>\n
Investigators determined Avery\u2019s phone was at the location of each crime at the time of each crime \u2014 the theft of the box truck at Flowers Baking Co., Compton\u2019s home and Tobacco Land, as well as the car fire, police said.<\/p>\n
As of Tuesday, Avery remained in Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $125,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 11 at 11:15 a.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 35-year-old Tunkhannock man stole an SUV in Blakely and then tried to steal an ATM from a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2118,202,201,182,139,28,178,180,179,181,4962,2943],"class_list":{"0":"post-104908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-blakely","9":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","10":"tag-lackawanna-county","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-pennsylvania","14":"tag-scranton","15":"tag-scranton-headlines","16":"tag-scranton-news","17":"tag-top-stories-stt","18":"tag-tunkhannock","19":"tag-wyoming-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}