Cops: Man caught stealing items from truck outside Lansdale YMCA

Chul Ahn, 25, faces three misdemeanor criminal counts

A Lower Gwynedd man is facing theft and related charges after he was allegedly caught stealing items from a pickup truck parked outside the North Penn YMCA in Lansdale, according to police.

Chul Ahn, 25, of the 1200 block of Turnbury Lane, has been charged with second-degree misdemeanor counts of theft, theft from a motor vehicle and receiving stolen property.

Lansdale police said that on the afternoon of Jan. 15, cops responded to the YMCA on the 600 block of East Main Street for a reported theft in progress and spoke with a man who said he saw Ahn taking things from the back of his truck.

The man said that he had found an individual, later identified as Ahn, standing by the tailgate rif ling through various equipment, and when the man asked Ahn what he was doing, Ahn allegedly claimed “his boss told him to come to this truck and retrieve some items,” according to an affidavit of probable cause.

As Ahn began to walk away, the affidavit states, the man saw that items in the back of his truck had been moved around and that Ahn was carrying his chain hoist and chain hoist bag, as well as a space heater that the man didn’t recognize, and that Ahn was wearing the man’s blue hard hat.

The man then confronted Ahn and escorted him into the YMCA, and police were called to the scene, documents indicate.

Police said the man told them he does not known Ahn and had not given him permission to take anything from his truck.

A summons was issued for Ahn to appear in Lansdale district court on March 11 for a preliminary hearing in the matter.