Police: Pittsburgh man stole Allegheny County maintenance truck, crashed into pole

A Bloomfield man stole a leaf blower and a maintenance truck with 50 road cones in its bed from an Allegheny County Public Works garage and crashed it into a pole the next morning, according to police.

Gregory Galvez, 47, is charged with theft, receiving stolen property, moving violations and drug-related charges.

The truck, a Chevy Silverado, was parked at a county maintenance garage in Lower Lawrenceville the evening of July 7, according to police. An employee realized about 7 a.m. the next day that the truck was missing along with about 50 orange traffic cones that were in the truck bed. A leaf blower was also missing from the bed of a separate truck.

Around the same time a county police officer was taking a report about the stolen truck, Pittsburgh police were responding to a report of a pick-up truck that crashed into a utility pole on Melwood Avenue in North Oakland, according to the criminal complaint.

Police noted that someone had tried to use white spray paint to cover various Allegheny County markings on the crashed white Chevy Silverado, according to the complaint. A witness said the driver, a bald man in his 40s, ran from the scene, which was captured by security cameras on a nearby building.

Inside the truck, police found the original license plate and discovered the one affixed to the truck had apparently been stolen from a truck in Dunbar, according to the complaint. The owner of the truck with the stolen tags said his truck hadn’t been moved from the parking lot in months.

A witness who owns the parking lot from which the license plate was stolen told police there had been problems with one of the nearby apartments, according to the complaint. Shown an image of the man suspected of stealing the county truck, the witness identified him as Galvez, noting he frequents the aforementioned nuisance apartment.

County police arrested Galvez on Tuesday morning at a Strip District medical facility he’s known to go to every day, according to the complaint.

During a pat down, police found a crack pipe, suspected marijuana and two empty stamp bags in Galvez’s pocket, according to the complaint.

Galvez remained in the Allegheny County Jail on Wednesday, unable to post $15,000 bail. Court records did not list an attorney for Galvez. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 26.