New Kensington police say 'bored' teen stole Jeep from city dealership

New Kensington police say a Wilkins Township man admitted to stealing a Jeep from a used car dealership in the city because he was bored.

In court paperwork, police say David Eugene George II, 18, admitted breaking into Wheel Deal Auto Sales on Industrial Boulevard on Feb. 3. They say he confessed a week later when investigators from New Ken­sington and Westmoreland County interviewed him at the Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh.

George is jailed in Allegheny County on two cases out of Wilkins Township and one out of Monroeville, according to court records.

In a criminal complaint against George, New Kensington police say they discovered the break-in and theft of the vehicle after first getting a 911 call for an unwanted man in a Valley Royal Court apartment followed by a report of a hit-and-run crash near Fourth Avenue and Hileman Drive.

According to the complaint, George went to the Valley Royal Court apartment of an old acquaintance he knew from school. The man said George threatened people and was carrying multiple sets of different car keys. George left shortly after the man called 911.

Another man at the apartment said George hit his vehicle in the parking lot when George left in a Jeep with no license plate. The man told police he believed the Jeep was stolen because George does not own a car, the complaint said.

Police said the two men turned in six key rings they said they found on the ground near where George had parked the Jeep. Police said the key rings had blue tags identifying the vehicles they were for and looked liked they belonged to a car dealership.

Officers checked local car dealerships and found a broken window at Wheel Deal. The store manager confirmed the key rings and the Jeep were theirs, the complaint said.

Police said they found drops of blood and possible fingerprints at the dealership. A key ring found in the parking lot had a bloody fingerprint on it, according to police.

The suspect’s face was captured on video and resembled George, police said.

Police said they were told George lives with his mother in Wilkins Township. According to the complaint, George’s mother called police there because her son had taken a car from New Kensington and she wanted it out of her driveway.

George told Wilkins Township police that he fled from New Kensington in the Jeep after the two men tried giving him random car keys and attacked him after he refused to take the keys, according to the complaint. George told police the Jeep probably belonged to one of the people in the apartment, the complaint said.

Police said video shows the same person who burglarized Wheel Deal and took the Jeep pulling into the Valley Royal Court parking lot, entering the residence and leaving in the same vehicle.

A Wilkins Township officer identified the person at the dealership and Valley Royal Court as George, the complaint said.

Police said George agreed to talk with investigators and to a recorded interview at the Allegheny County Jail.

According to the complaint, George said he was at Valley Royal Court and was DoorDashing with a friend when he got bored and wanted to steal something.

George said he cut his hand breaking into Wheel Deal and that one vehicle he tried to take had no gas in it, according to the complaint.

George said he took the Jeep and went back to the apartment before going home, police said. He said he lied to Wilkins Township police because he did not want to make his mother mad, according to the complaint.

George did not have an attorney listed in court records. New Kensington police charged him with burglary, theft and criminal mischief.

George is scheduled for a preliminary hearing March 9 before New Kensington District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr.