Incarcerated burglar gets more time in ’15 Ross heist

A serial burglar from Philadelphia already in state prison has been sentenced to another 3½ to seven years for his role in the theft of a safe containing $170,000 in cash and bonds from an elderly Ross woman over five years ago.

Judge Anthony Mariani of Allegheny County Common Pleas Court imposed that term Jan. 13 on Steve Mitchell after he pleaded guilty to burglary, conspiracy and receiving stolen property.

Mitchell was already serving 10 to 20 years for a series of burglaries in June 2016 across Pennsylvania in which he

distracted elderly homeowners while accomplices stole from them. One of those was an attempted burglary in West View on June 30, 2016, during which police caught Mitchell in the act and arrested him.

He was ultimately convicted in Cumberland County of a series of similar burglaries and sentenced to prison. Detectives also suspected that he was involved in the burglary of an 82-yearold woman’s house in Ross on June 15, 2015.

Authorities said he ultimately confessed to that crime last year in an interview with Ross and Allegheny County detectives.

Mitchell said he acted as the distraction in posing as someone who was in the neighborhood to fix a fence. While he occupied the homeowner, two accomplices stole her safe from her house and alerted him by two-way radio when they were done. Mitchell and the others then got into a truck driven by a fourth conspirator. The thieves drove to nearby parking lot, emptied the safe, divided the money and returned to Philadelphia, according to an affidavit. The safe contained $140,000 in cash and $30,000 in U.S. Treasury and savings bonds.

The victim and her son said in a statement that the “financial devastation” of the crime “has been immense.”

“My mom and dad grew up poor, so my dad worked tirelessly for the majority of his life, trying to give his family a better life,” the son said. “In his later years, he worked in the demolition business, trying his best to save some money for his twilight years with his wife. Most of the money he saved was gotten through his demolition business which ultimately cost him his life, dying of lung cancer, which made the theft of this money so much more painful.”

He and his mother asked the judge to give Mitchell the 3½ to seven years behind bars.

The district attorney’s office said Mitchell’s three coconspirators have not been identified.