Rosary tattoo helps police identify suspects in Derry Township scrap metal thefts

State police used footage from a security camera hidden in an abandoned Derry Township industrial plant to identify two suspects, one with a distinctive rosary tattoo, in the theft of almost 1,000 pounds of copper and brass last summer.

Troopers this week arrested Timothy Tarr, 33, of Indiana County and formerly of Salem Township, on multiple charges of burglary, criminal trespass and theft in connection with multiple break-ins last June at the former Kennametal Inc. plant on Chestnut Ridge Road. The property is now owned by C&D Coal Co.

Tarr was arraigned before Derry District Judge Mark Bilik and ordered held in the Westmoreland County Prison on $50,000 bond pending a preliminary hearing.

Police also have an arrest warrant for John A. Kurtz, 51, of Greensburg, who admitted his involvement in a recent interview with Trooper Joseph Lauricia, according to court documents.

C&D officials provided video which showed one of the men who entered the plant June 18-20 had a rosary tattoo on his upper arm, Lauricia reported in a criminal complaint.

Investigators determined Kurtz matched the description and has such a tattoo, which led them to Tarr, “who is a known acquaintance of Kurtz,” Lauricia wrote.

Troopers obtained multiple receipts from a McKeesport scrap yard showing that Tarr was paid $1,771 in exchange several hundred pounds of brass and copper, suspected to have been taken during the thefts, Lauricia reported.

“Kurtz said in an interview he did not think it was a problem taking the items since the building has been abandoned for awhile and no one uses it anymore,” Lauricia wrote.

Lauricia said the men reportedly spent the cash on illegal drugs.