Kittanning Woman Latest to Attempt Wal-Mart Robbery
Employees in the Hilltop Plaza Wal-Mart, East Franklin Township caught two more individuals accused of attempting to rob the store last night. Citations have been issued to four individuals who have tried to rob the store in the past three weeks.
by Jonathan Weaver
Two Kittanning women are the latest regional residents who attempted to rob an East Franklin Township store.
Casey Hartzell, 20, and Rebecca Toy, 23, both of Kittanning were stopped by Wal-Mart employees last night after they tried to steal clothing from the store in Hilltop Plaza.
East Franklin Township Police Sgt. William Evans responded to the call.
“They were both stopped for concealing clothing in their purses,” Evans said.
Citations against both women will be filed today in District Magisterial Judge James Owen’s office.
This is the third time in as many weeks that people tried to rob from the store.
On Friday, February 3, Elizabeth Stephens, 22 of Carnegie was arrested by Pennsylvania State Police troopers after trying to steal more than $52 worth of items from the store.
Robert Bowers, 73 of Apollo also attempted to steal from the East Franklin Township Wal-Mart around 4:30PM Friday, January 27.
Cases against Stephens and Bowers will also be heard before Judge Owen.
Wal-Mart daylight managers were not available for comment about the robbery attempts.
Local News | jweaver February 8, 2012
By JornJensen, February 8, 2012 @ 8:37 AM
Johnathan – Ahhh, there’s a big difference in the definitions of robbery and theft. Please look them up in a dictionary.
By north end guy, February 8, 2012 @ 8:54 AM
I think Jorn Jetson is right.Shoplifting is stealing,nor robbery.And you want to charge for this paper???
By JohnK, February 8, 2012 @ 9:44 AM
I see where you are considering charging $1 per issue. That would be a huge mistake in my opinion. Secondly, if greed wins out..Use the money to send someone to take a class or two. I have seen better writing skills from middle school newspapers.
Some of the articles bounce from one thought to another, and as JornJensen pointed out…robbery and shoplifting are ENTIRELY different.
By Kittanning Lady, February 8, 2012 @ 9:52 AM
@ JornJensen, always with negative comments with you. Leave Johnathan alone,he is young and still is learning his job! No one is perfect not even you. Just for giggles I did look up the definition of the two words,they both refer to stealing.
By dalereese67, February 8, 2012 @ 9:53 AM
I agree… it looks like an attempt to try to get more people to read the story.
By come_on_people, February 8, 2012 @ 11:00 AM
Who cares? Robbery or Theft, big deal!!!
By walrus, February 8, 2012 @ 3:37 PM
I guess you get what you pay for ( double meaning)!
By Ridiculous, February 8, 2012 @ 4:00 PM
That’s what I was thinking. Robbery is a felony, and retail theft sounds like a summary in this case since Evans is sending a citation. Who is the editor?
By mm, February 8, 2012 @ 4:28 PM
Funny how you are dogging on this author about a definition while not even spelling his name correctly. Maybe you should just look up above to get the correct spelling. Maybe you haven’t gotten this yet, but people on here are really tired of reading your negative posts. Get a LIFE!
By McDanno87, February 8, 2012 @ 4:43 PM
I agree…these are textbook retail theft cases, not robbery.
By forward, February 8, 2012 @ 5:02 PM
Jorn, is there any topic that you won’t comment on? Give Johnathan a break. Just where is this perfect world you live in? Oh, and please look up S-P-S in a dictionary.
By jdk4870, February 8, 2012 @ 6:19 PM
I agree with JornJensen, I don’t understand how this gets past your editors..if you have any. This is irresponsible journalism at it’s best and pure laziness at it’s worst. A simple five second Google search and you would understand the difference between THEFT and ROBBERY.
By jerry6, February 8, 2012 @ 8:23 PM
Jorn, stop picking on Johnathan. He does a good job. You are always posting on here like you are an authority on everything. For someone who is always saying about the work he does, I wonder when you do this because you are always posting on here. Lighten up and stop critizing so much. No one is perfect.
By abc123, February 8, 2012 @ 8:59 PM
Although I do agree that there are far too many grammatical errors in the Kittanning Paper, I would caution those who would throw stones. For example, “its” means “belonging to it,” whereas “it’s” is the shortened form for “it is” or “it has.” The dog wagged its tail. It’s polite to hold doors open for others.
Additionally, perhaps the writer used the term “rob” because he has reviewed the criminal complaint. Force, however slight, when used during a theft would upgrade the charge to a “robbery.” So if the people involved in this particular instance gave any indication that there could be any bodily injury, such as trying to push past a loss prevention person, they could technically be charged with robbery.
By wakeup, February 8, 2012 @ 9:01 PM
Jorn- keep it up and forget the naysayers. You make the paper better by holding the writers to a level of professionalism.. Truthfully the paper should welcome your remarks so they may grow as individuals and a publication.
By kwiss4, February 8, 2012 @ 9:46 PM
Synonyms for the word robbery, larceny, theft, stealing, thievery. Seriously get over this nonsense. Bottomline they broke the law. You don’t take something that doesn’t belong to you. Jonathan keep up the good work.
By admin, February 8, 2012 @ 10:22 PM
@jdk4870 – I assure you there is NO laziness here. Mistakes, yes! That happens when a very small staff attempts to cover the number of stories we do. In case you haven’t counted, our “local” stories outnumber any of our competitors each week. While I am willing to be flogged by our readers on mistakes we make, I will not stay silent on accusations of laziness.
@ Jorn – Thanks for the grammatical review. Keep them coming. Iron sharpens iron. We need to have those corrections brought to our attention. Jonathan and I are better now because of it.
By mark, February 8, 2012 @ 11:13 PM
16 comments and admin`s reply on Jorn`s cut on grammatical error. Anyone even care about the story? People waltzing in where they please to steal. Evidently they didn`t steal, or is it rob, or is it theft from any one of your homes or businesses. Geez…Hope my post is done correctly or I`ll hear from the grammar nazi.
By tom, February 8, 2012 @ 11:13 PM
I heard it was almost an armed robbery cause the suspected robbers had 4 arms!
By youdonthaveaclue, February 8, 2012 @ 11:22 PM
I have seen alot of the same comments in several articles about how a certain person on here never has a nice thing to say. Are you so unhappy in your life that you are truly that miserable or does it make you feel good to constantly criticize everyone and everything? Have none of you learned that our pal Jorn is perfect??
By youdonthaveaclue, February 8, 2012 @ 11:23 PM
Jonathan you do a fine job…..keep up the good work!!
By tom, February 8, 2012 @ 11:33 PM
so what kind of items are most likely to be stolen in kittanning Wal-Mart amish hats, berlap under garmets, and fishin rods? What was the old bowser guy stealing geritol? What about all the robberies I hear on the scanner at the dollar store in kittanning. Why is this not in yer flyer you call a newspaper? How ya like them apples?
By JornJensen, February 9, 2012 @ 7:15 AM
wakeup, Admin and a number of others obviously ‘get it’ – forward and Kittanning Lady – not. Jonathan (I stand corrected – there is not an ‘h’ in Jonathan) is young and learning the reporting/news business. He does do a very good job, and with time and experience, he can own or be the president of Hearst Publications. His work hours are obviously not the same as many 9 to 5 jobs. I very much appreciate and read his work.
forward and Kittanning Lady – lighten up – if you don’t like my comments don’t read them – just skip over them.
At Christmas time, I hounded Jonathan about the word Christmas. In a predominantly Christian reporting/news area, the word ‘Christmas’ is typically accepted by most folks, including those of the Jewish faith. If this were a predominantly Islam area, you might want to refrain from the use of the word Christmas.
He’s learning and doing a good job – keep reading his work!
By forward, February 9, 2012 @ 7:29 AM
admin, are you sure you should be thanking jorn for this? It might make him even more of a spaccone, ( its italian )
By dalereese67, February 9, 2012 @ 12:19 PM
For anyone trying to say robbery and theft are one and the same I’ve got a question for you.
Is there a difference between first, second, and third degree murder? Murder is murder, but there are obviously different punishment levels.
Robbery is a theft, it doesnt take a genius to figure that out. What everyone is referring to is the writers use of the word robbery to make it seem like more than what it actually was so people will read the article.
So what if Jorn comments on everything. He has as much of a right to an opinion as you do… and most of the time his responses at least show that he’s educated, unlike some of the people here whining about him.
By JohnK, February 9, 2012 @ 3:05 PM
Kwiss4,
Perhaps that is one of the reasons you weren’t successful in your campaign…attention to details. Robbery and theft are two entirely different things. Either this was an attempt to get more attention for this story or the writer doesn’t possess an understanding of the English language. Robbery would indicate that a weapon was used. Two women stuffing makeup in their underwear isn’t nearly as dramatic.
Jorn, keep up the posting. Don’t let the uneducated and the jealous people push you out.
By olgadabest, February 9, 2012 @ 3:57 PM
Such a big fuss over robbery or theft…geez…lighten up already!
By mark, February 9, 2012 @ 8:43 PM
Careful now… the grammar nazi is out there. As I said Feb 8 ,anyone even care about the story?Only Tom in 27 comments, count `em, 27 said anything about the story of the “incident” at Wally World. Leave the editor alone, Jorn shut up. This story is more important than your grammar fetish.
By mark, February 9, 2012 @ 8:57 PM
I want to say, “stop it” in place of “shut up”.
By Interesting, February 10, 2012 @ 5:59 AM
@JohnK- The word “robbery” does not have to indicate that a weapon was utilized, it merely means that a use of force or the threat of a use of force must be present. Please pay attention to details.
By JornJensen, February 10, 2012 @ 7:00 AM
JohnK – I’m still out here – like someone up above said, or referred to, I do have to do some private sector work once in a while so I can pay taxes.
youdonthaveaclue – You’re using the ‘pal’ word again, but you never responded to my offer of us being ‘pals’ if you’d join me in my campaign to push for cutting government waste of our tax dollars and for downsizing government. You coming along?