Thieves continue to strike businesses and homes in southern Lancaster County, but not all their efforts have been successful.

Burglars forced their way into Michael's Homestyle Breads, 417 Georgetown Road, Strasburg, on Tuesday night, but got nothing,  Lancaster state police said.

The intruders, who probably were looking for money, battered open a front door of the Strasburg Township business and did about $400 damage, Trooper Kevin Reed said. The theft loss was zero, as no money is kept in the business overnight, the trooper said.

Occupants of a home in the first block of Leaman Road in Paradise Township had money and prescription medicine stolen on Wednesday night, state police said.

The thieves took $150 cash belonging to Zach Owens, 19, and Jena Moore, 18, both of Paradise, and $40 worth of medication belonging to Lauren Peace, 18, of Paradise, Trooper Reed reported.

A window air conditioner was stolen sometime between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Wednesday from the home of Rebecca Riehl Bieler, 29, of the 2400 block of Robert Fulton Highway (Route 222), Peach Bottom, in Fulton Township, state police said.

State police also said six 15-mph speed-limit signs and one stop sign were stolen along the access road to the Muddy Run Generation Station, 1925 River Road, Drumore, in Drumore Township.

The signs were removed from posts between midnight and 12:30 p.m. last Friday, Trooper Andrew Manning said.

Elsewhere:

• Northwest Regional police said a thief crawled underneath a parked pickup truck, sawed through  the exhaust system, and removed the catalytic converter.

The incident happened between 6 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Wednesday while the 2000 Dodge pickup was parked in a parking area off of Route 743 at Beverly Road, which is near Route 283  in Mount Joy Township.

In a press release about the theft, Northwest Regional Police Chief Sam H. Gatchell III said police here "are aware of a proliferation of catalytic converter thefts nationwide," but that such thefts in this area "have been rare."

Gatchell said the suspect who stole the catalytic converter was "very brazen" as the theft happened close to highways which have a high volume of traffic, especially during daytime hours.

Anyone with information about the theft is asked to call Northwest Regional police at 367-8481.

• A home in the 3300 block of Marietta Avenue, west of Stony Battery Road, was broken into during daytime hours on Tuesday, West Hempfield Township police said.

The victim discovered the burglary at 3:47 p.m. Tuesday.  Some of the items stolen from the home were found scattered in back yards in the area, Officer James Gardill reported.

• In the same area of Marietta Avenue,  a resident living in the Country View Estates development saw four to six young males running through back yards at about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Gardill said.

Police located and questioned four of the youths. One of them, who was a 16-year-old Lancaster boy, was arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia.  Another, identified by police as Zachary Violante, 19, of Columbia, was arrested on an outstanding traffic warrant, police said.

• Lancaster police charged Tytus Eugene Gant, 32, of 829 E. Orange St., with possession of heroin and two counts of giving false identity to law enforcement following a traffic stop for loud music at 9:30 p.m. Thursday in the 500 block of Chester Street.

Gant had two packets of suspected heroin, and he gave police two false names — Michael Clemmen and Jabron Gant, Officer Chris McCormick said.


Staff writer John M. Hoober III can be reached at jhoober@LNPnews.com or 481-6027.