Burglar caught in act in Girardville

State police at the Frackville barracks arrested Shawn Jago, 35, of Ashland, on a series of charges after he was caught in a burglary in progress around noon Sept. 23 at 107-109 N. Centre St., Girardville.

Jago was arraigned on charges of burglary, criminal trespass, theft, resisting arrest, possession of drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia and committed to the Schuylkill County Prison, Pottsville.

Police said they were dispatched to a burglary in progress at 109 N. Centre St., and found Jago trespassed into the rear yard of the property, entered the rear porch and stole a blue backpack containing binoculars, a buck call and an archery gauntlet. He also took a pink bag containing clothes, a pocket radio and hygiene supplies, and removed a Toshiba laptop computer from the rear porch seat.

Police said the man then climbed up the porch and onto the second story of the residence, at which time the residents came outside to confront him. Police said Jago began going through the bags and threw items onto the third story roof before leaping onto the adjacent roof at 107 N. Centre St.

When police arrived, Jago leaped off the roof into the yard at 107, forced open a rear cellar door of that premises and entered it. Pursuing officers eventually found him hiding in an overhead crawlspace in the kitchen stairway, where Jago had broken through a drywall section to gain entry to the crawlspace.

Police said a small metal mint tin containing plastic bags typical of the crime of drug delivery was found in Jago's possession. One bag contained a powdery substance that was field tested to be amphetamine. Another bag contained a rock of white crystal substance and the tin also contained a white tablet that the defendant identified as a painkiller that he had not been prescribed.