Sneakers, jacket and car trouble lead to charges in Fox Chapel and O’Hara robberies

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Police said they used the Adidas shoes and North Face jacket of a Squirrel Hill man to link him to a string of burglaries at Fox Chapel and O’Hara over the course of a year, according to charges laid Tuesday.

Andrew Clinton, 20, faces more than a dozen charges, including burglary, theft, receiving possession and criminal mischief.

Police said Clinton appeared on their radar March 28 when they responded to a car stuck in the mud along Field Club Road in Fox Chapel around 6:20 a.m. Clinton, who was driving the car, told Police said he was stuck in the mud after stopping to put an address in his GPS, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case.

The complaint says the responding officer noticed Clinton’s driver’s license was damaged, which Clinton explained by saying he often used the license to enter his home when he locked himself in.

An hour earlier, police say, a Ring camera at a house on Field Club Road had recorded a person wearing white three-stripe Adidas tennis shoes and a North Face jacket with distinctive markings on the sleeves walking past the porch.

The owners discovered hours later that their home had been broken into, according to the complaint.

Investigators said the man captured in Ring footage was linked to three other burglaries at O’Hara in February 2021. Surveillance footage from one of those burglaries showed a similar-looking man wearing the same jacket North Face, according to the complaint.

Police also linked the suspect to a break-in at Fox Chapel last August, according to the complaint. In that burglary, the suspect took a brass lamp, two portable stereos, a men’s watch and cufflinks, police said.

The complaint said Clinton was arrested in connection with burglaries in Pittsburgh on October 3, 2020 and February 13, 2021.

Police said they staked out Clinton’s Squirrel Hill home and saw him wearing white-striped Adidas tennis shoes, matching those in surveillance footage, according to the complaint.

A search warrant executed Monday at Clinton’s home revealed several items stolen from Fox Chapel and O’Hara, according to the complaint.

Clinton is charged with four counts of burglary and theft, five counts of receiving stolen property, three counts of criminal mischief and one count of attempted burglary. Court records showed he remained in the Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh late Tuesday afternoon, unable to post $20,000 bond. The records did not mention an attorney for Clinton.

Megan Guza is editor of Tribune-Review. You can contact Megan at 412-380-8519, [email protected] or via Twitter .

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