Baldwin Man Charged with Stealing Wheelbarrow from Cemetery

A Whitehall Borough police officer came across something suspicious along Provost Road on June 13.

At around 12:20 that afternoon, the officer, while on patrol, observed a man run up to the vehicle that was in front of the officer's and yell something at its driver, Whitehall police Deputy Chief Richard M. Danko said.

The driver pulled away from the man, and the officer followed him, Danko said, noticing that a blue wheelbarrow was sticking out of the back of his vehicle.

According to Whitehall police, the officer observed the driver take his vehicle into the opposite lane of the Provost-Baptist Road intersection and through a red traffic signal onto Baptist, where he began weaving his way through other vehicles.

The officer eventually stopped the vehicle on Norwin Drive, which is attached to Baptist, where it was discovered that the driver—Michael Joseph Mursch, 27, of Horning Road in south Baldwin Borough—had taken the wheelbarrow from the Zion Cemetery along Provost, Danko said. The man yelling at the driver had observed the theft, according to the deputy chief.

Mursch was also in possession of a syringe, police report. He is being charged with theft, traffic violations and possession of drug paraphernalia.