Police: 2 people arrested after Kiski Township officer pulls them over in stolen car
A man and a woman riding with him were arrested after a Kiski Township patrol officer pulled them over in a car that was reported stolen.
Investigators said the pair were stopped near the intersection of River Road and 19th Street on April 22 after an officer patrolling in North Apollo asked a 911 dispatcher to check the registration of the blue Chevrolet Cruze they were riding in, according to a criminal complaint.
The car was reported stolen out of New Kensington and had a “dead” license plate, which means it no longer is associated with a vehicle, according to a criminal complaint.
Robert James Sipe, 36, of the 400 block of Kennedy Avenue in East Vandergrift, was charged with a felony count of receiving stolen property along with driving with a suspended license and driving in an unregistered vehicle, according to court records.
Sipe, who was wanted on a felony arrest warrant in Allegheny County, is being detained in the Armstrong County Jail in lieu of a $10,000 cash bond. He faces a preliminary hearing before District Judge James Andring on May 4.
The passenger, Brandi Jo Toy, 36, of the 500 block of Woodward Avenue in Kittanning, was out of jail on bond, charged with theft and drug possession charges when the car Sipe was driving was pulled over, according to court records.
Police wrote in her arrest papers that they contacted the owner of the stolen car for permission to search the vehicle and found a plastic pipe under the passenger seat where Toy was seated.
The pipe, which had a white residue, is used to snort methamphetamine, police wrote in the complaint.
Kiski Township police charged her with two counts of prohibited acts for possession of the drug paraphernalia, according to her arrest papers.
A preliminary hearing on the charges before Andring has not yet been scheduled, court records show.
New Kensington police said they plan to charge Toy with stealing the car but had not yet filed a criminal complaint, according to her arrest papers.
Tony LaRussa is a TribLive reporter. A Pittsburgh native, he covers crime and courts in the Alle-Kiski Valley. He can be reached at tlarussa@triblive.com.
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