Published: August 05, 2009 11:47 pm      

Jackson chief arrests suspects in scam, theft

Cream cheese and crackers are part of the criminal case against two women who police say entered the home of a Mundys Corner man.

But that’s getting ahead of the story.

A resident of Whitetail Road – Joseph Fletcher, 54 – awoke at 7 a.m. Tuesday to find a woman standing over his bed, said Jackson Township police Chief Robert Fatula.

“He was shocked,” Fatula said. “He left his door open and she walked right in.”

Judith E. Magallanes, 41, of the 100 block of Richland Avenue, Windber, then asked Fletcher for money, police said.

“She said that she had to go to Maryland and she had a hole in her gas tank, fixed with putty, and she needed money for gas,” Fatula said.

Fletcher declined to help her.

Meanwhile, Fatula said, accomplice Jill Griffith, 30, of the 700 block of Park Avenue, Moxham, was downstairs rummaging through the house and raiding the refrigerator. She stole cream cheese and crackers – along with some cigarettes – then went out to the car and snacked.

After the women took off, Fletcher called 911, then went to Sheetz to get another pack of cigarettes. He happened to spot the suspects at the convenience store and called 911 again to say the women were there.

Fatula said Magallanes was flimflamming another woman at the store when he arrived.

“I took the $35 off of her and gave it back to the lady,” the chief said Wednesday.

“And I did get the cream cheese and crackers as evidence,” he said.

Magallanes and Griffith were jailed on theft charges in lieu of $5,000 bond each set by District Judge Mary Ann Zanghi of Vinco.

Criminal records at the courthouse in Ebensburg show the two suspects have run afoul of the law before.

Magallanes has a lengthy record including theft, drugs and drug paraphernalia, and prowling and loitering at night.

Charges are pending against her in a Richland Township scam during the winter in which she allegedly asked strangers for money, saying her 7-year-old daughter was stranded at the Pittsburgh airport.

Magallanes would stop people at their businesses, homes and in parking lots and promise to repay any money she borrowed, police said.

Griffith has received probationary terms for several counts of receiving stolen property.