Police: Lehighton men tried to break into house

Two Lehighton area men have been charged with criminal trespass after they attempted to break into a borough home.

According to the affidavit of probable cause filed by patrolman Matthew Bender of the Lehighton Borough Police Department:

At 1:55 a.m. Thursday, Bender was dispatched to a home on Center Street for a burglary in progress.

The communication center continued to give updates and descriptions of the two offenders.

Bender saw James Luckenbaugh, 33, of Lehighton walking south along the woods leaving the residence and stopped him.

The second man, Chad Hartsell, 37, of Weissport, was found hiding within the bushes alongside the south end of the home.

The victim said Luckenbaugh and Hartsell came in the sunroom and attempted to open the sliding glass doors to gain access to the main house.

The victim said the sunroom doors were locked, and they had to pull or slide something into the door frame in order to unlock them.

The victim opened the curtain and saw both men were pulling on the sliding glass door.

When they could not access the house, they walked out of the sunroom and to the back basement door attempting to gain access to the vestibule area, but couldn’t open the door.

Hartsell had tools and Luckenbaugh had a backpack with a glove and tools, as well as two hypodermic needles in his left pants pocket.

Inside the interview room, Luckenbaugh pulled out six packets of suspected heroin and attempted to curl them up to dispose of them.

Luckenbaugh faces charges of criminal attempt; criminal trespass — breaking into structure; and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Hartsell faces charges of criminal attempt and criminal trespass — breaking into structure.

Both are currently incarcerated in the Carbon County Correctional Facility in lieu of $75,000 bail each, and are scheduled to have preliminary hearings May 8 before District Judge Eric Schrantz of Jim Thorpe.