Carbon man given state prison term for theft incident

A Carbon County man was sentenced to a state prison term on Monday after pleading guilty in a theft incident.

Douglas James Ahner Jr., 36, of Jim Thorpe, was sentenced by Judge Steven R. Serfass to serve 24 to 50 months in a state correctional institution on a charge of theft by receiving stolen property, rated as a felony one. A charge of robbery was dropped in a plea bargain with the district attorney’s office.

Ahner was charged by Palmerton police for an incident on Dec. 6, 2017. He was being given a ride by a fellow worker when the worker said Ahner attacked and began choking him. The victim told police he woke up along the roadway with his vehicle missing.

Ahner took the vehicle and was apprehended some time later in Alabama and extradited back to Pennsylvania.

Ahner admitted stealing the vehicle but denied choking the victim. He claimed that the victim owed him money and that was the reason he took the vehicle.

Ahner is currently serving a state prison term of one and a half to three years at SCI Mahanoy in Schuylkill County, for a probation violation which was imposed in January. He is also facing a criminal count in Alabama incident to the theft of the vehicle.

Serfass ruled his sentence would run concurrent with the probation term.

Ahner was also ordered to get a drug and alcohol evaluation and follow any recommendation for treatment, zero tolerance for drug or alcohol use, supply a DNA sample and pay court costs of about $1,000.