Pair Arrested In Connection With Rash Of Burglaries Along Chester-Delco Border
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Arrests have been made in a string of daytime home burglaries along the Chester-Delaware County border.
Westtown-East Goshen Regional Police now say two suspects could be charged with as many as two dozen burglaries in 8 townships over the past six months.
Police identify the suspects as 36-year-old David Lee of Oxford and 29-year-old Daniel Freas of Birmingham Township.
The burglaries started in early summer, says Detective Lieutenant William Cahill from the Westtown-East Goshen Police Department.
"Later in the year we noticed the frequency of the burglaries was increasing more often during the week, and there were multiple homes being hit in one given day," Cahill said.
He says with information shared by area police departments, State Police were able to develop a primary suspect, and they started surveillance on Lee.
"We were able to follow him into Pocopson Township where he and the second individual committed a burglary of a home of Route 52."
Lt. Cahill says they caught Lee running out of that home with a jewelry box, while Freas was waiting in the car.
Police describe the pair as "knock knock" burglars who would first knock on doors and then, if no one answered, force their way in, heading mostly to bedrooms where they used pillow cases to haul away jewelry.
While no one was injured in any of the burglaries, police say, many items with sentimental value, like wedding rings, were stolen.
Police are now scrambling to recover as many as possible before they are melted down.
Neighbors told CBS 3's Walt Hunter they were "very relieved" to learn of the arrests which had caused widespread concern for months throughout Chester and Delaware Counties.
While the suspects are held behind bars, as police prepare to file more charges, they ask anyone with information to call the Westtown-East Goshen Regional Police Department at 610-692-5100 or email the Burglary Task Force at detectives@westtownpolice.org.
CBS3's Walt Hunter contributed to this report.
