Crime & Safety

Millvale Man Charged With Stealing Car from Blade Runners Ice Complex in Warrendale

Vanya Michael Russo is scheduled for a Nov. 20 formal arraignment.

A 22-year-old Millvale man charged with stealing car keys and then the car from the Blade Runners Ice Complex in Warrendale is scheduled for a Nov. 20 formal arraignment.

Vanya Michael Russo waived his preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge William K. Wagner on Wednesday.

He is charged with felony counts of theft and receiving stolen property for taking a 2007 Infiniti G35X sedan from the front parking lot about 10 p.m. Sept. 15, the criminal complaint states.

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The victim told police someone had entered the locker room while he was playing hockey and stole his keys and subsequently his car, which had his wallet, ID and cell phone in it, according to the complaint.

Another male also told police his cell phone was removed from the locker room.

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A rink employee said he had seen and spoken to someone wandering around the rink who was the friend of a former employee, police said.

When the employee reviewed the surveillance video, he "observed that the male had entered the locker room areas and had remained for a period of time," the criminal complaint states.

The employee got Russo's name from the former employee, and then identified him from a photo acquired by police, according to the complaint.

Police contacted Sprint Security and located the stolen car in Pine Township with the GPS coordinates of the victim's cell phone, the complaint states.

Police stopped the car at the intersection of Route 19 (Perry Highway) and Brooktree, police said.

Russo was taken into custody about 1:40 a.m. and transported to the Northern Regional Police Station, where he admitted to entering the locker rooms at Blade Runners, taking the keys and stealing the vehicle in which he was caught, according to the criminal complaint.

During an inventory of the vehicle, both missing cell phones, keys and a wallet were recovered, the complaint states.


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