NORTON: Police said a Bath Township man burglarized a Norton home four hours after pleading guilty to a drug charge in Stow Municipal Court.
Charles R. Seeley, 26, of Granger Road, faces additional charges of aggravated burglary, robbery and felony theft in Barberton Municipal Court.
Authorities said Seeley was in Stow Municipal Judge Kim Hoover’s courtroom at 10 a.m. Thursday on a misdemeanor charge of possessing a drug-abuse instrument. After Seeley changed his plea from not guilty to guilty, Hoover ordered him to pay a $100 fine and released him.
About 2 p.m., a woman visiting her parents’ home in the 3400 block of Hametown Road literally ran into Seeley as he left a garage entrance with a television under his arm, Norton police said.
Norton police Chief Thad Hete said Seeley also was holding a pillowcase containing some of the family’s jewelry and other items.
“He shoved her and told her to get out of his way,” Hete said.
The woman, a University of Akron student, recognized a UA parking sticker inside the suspect’s dark blue Ford F-150 and remembered most of the license plate number as he drove away, Hete said.
Police traced the partial plate to Seeley who is also a University of Akron student.
Norton detectives asked Bath Township police to keep an eye on the Granger Road address where Seeley lives.
Bath officers notified Norton police around 8 p.m. Thursday when the truck was spotted in the driveway.
Officers from the two departments went to the home and took Seeley into custody.
Seeley told police the television was damaged when, in his haste to leave the Norton property, he threw it into the back of his pickup.
He told detectives he sold some of the jewelry to a Stow jeweler, officers said.
The rest, along with the damaged television, was recovered by Akron police in an East Market Street trash bin where Seeley reportedly told police he had thrown them away.
Seeley was being held in the Summit County Jail. He is scheduled to appear today in Barberton Court.