Police: Pair arrested on drug charges after Vandergrift cop spots them in stolen vehicle

Vandergrift police arrested two people on drug possession charges after officers spotted an SUV that was reported stolen in the borough on Saturday.

James Daniel Higgins, 41, of Washington Township, was charged with felony counts of receiving stolen property and four drug-related offenses. He is in the Westmoreland County Prison after bond was denied at his arraignment.

Kara Elizabeth Selm, 32, of Latrobe was charged with four felony drug counts. She is being detained in the county prison after failing to post a $20,000 cash bond.

Higgins and Selm face preliminary hearings on the charges before District Judge Denise S. Thiel on Nov. 16.

Police say the owner of a black 2011 Ford Escape walked into the police station on Saturday to report that he parked it along 10th Street in Vandergrift at about 2:30 a.m. because he was too intoxicated to drive, according to a criminal complaint filed in support of the charges.

When he returned the following day at around noon, it was gone, he said.

The man told police the vehicle is registered to him and a female friend who is in prison.

The owner of the vehicle told police he thinks Higgins obtained the keys for the SUV because he is the woman’s boyfriend, according to the complaint.

The pair were arrested after Officer Christian Disciscio spotted the vehicle at a home in the 400 block of Kennedy Avenue on Nov. 6 with Higgins sitting in the driver’s seat and Selm in the passenger’s seat, police said.

Higgins was detained by Disciscio and told the officer he was planning to surrender to police Monday for a pair of outstanding warrants in Washington Township and Monroeville, the complaint said.

Police said Selm then got out of the vehicle with a black backpack and placed it against a tree.

Officers got permission from her to search the backpack after she warned them that there was a needle inside the bag, the complaint said.

A digital scale with a white powder on it along with 69 stamp bags of suspected heroin were found in the backpack, police said.

Police said they also found five bags containing a little more than 14 grams of methamphetamine as well as $150 in cash, according to the complaint.

When Selm saw police pulling the drugs out of the backpack she told them that they belonged to both her and Higgins but she did not know how they got into the bag, the complaint said.