Two arrested for theft in Mahoning

A Bangor man was arrested by Mahoning Township police for assaulting a retail store manager and giving false identification to police, and both the man and a woman who was with him were charged with retail theft after trying to leave the store without paying for $1,463 worth of merchandise.

The charges stemmed from an incident that took place at 6:06 a.m. Jan. 21 at the Super Wal-Mart along SR443, according to police chief Kenneth A. Barnes.

Police were called to the store on a report of a man and woman being held for retail theft. The man allegedly assaulted a store manager.

The man, George Allan Pietrass, 33, of the 100 block of A Street, initially identified himself to police as Zaccaria August Cinelli, 18, of the 100 block of A Street. At the Carbon County Correctional Facility, he was identified as Pietrass.

Pietrass was charged with retail theft, criminal conspiracy to commit retail theft and simple assault. Additional charges will be filed against Pietrass for providing false information to a police officer. The woman who accompanied Pietrass, Amber D. Sisson, 33, of the 600 block of Snyder Street, Bangor, was charged with retail theft and criminal conspiracy to commit retail theft.

Both were arraigned before District Judge Edward Lewis, Jim Thorpe, and committed to the county prison under $15,000 bail.

Pietrass waived his right to a preliminary hearing; all charges were sent to county court. Pietrass, it turns out, was on probation with the Lehigh County Adult Probation and Parole Department at the time of his arrest. The charges violated the terms of his probation.