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FAIRVIEW TWP. — An inmate at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility was arraigned Tuesday on charges he burglarized a residence on Gracedale Avenue, stealing two firearms, coins and other items last year.
Township police allege Kaelin James Kovalski, 31, of Senate Drive, Mountain Top, called the homeowner to confirm he was at work before he used a garbage can to climb through an unlocked kitchen window on Oct. 23.
Kovalski is known to the homeowners.
Police allege Kovalski had stolen a rifle and a shotgun, jewelry, coins, a digital camera and vehicle keys from the house.
A trooper with the state police Forensic Services Unit, Hazleton, recovered a palm print from the kitchen window, police said.
Police said a neighbor spotted a suspicious man lurking around the house the day it was burglarized.
Kovalski was charged with three counts of criminal conspiracy, two counts of theft and a single count of burglary. He was arraigned by District Judge James Tupper in Kingston Township and remanded to the county correctional facility for lack of $7,000 bail.
Court records indicate Judge Michael Vough issued an arrest warrant for Kovalski on March 2 when he failed to appear for pre-trial hearings on unrelated theft charges. Here are Kovalski’s open cases in county court:
• Oct. 14, 2014: State police at Wyoming charged Kovalski with receiving stolen property and criminal conspiracy for his alleged role in stealing jewelry from a Franklin Township residence that was being renovated. Kovalski was employed by a contractor renovating the house.
• Sept. 20, 2014: State police at Wyoming charged Kovalski with false reports to law enforcement, false identification to law enforcement and driving with a suspended license when he allegedly used his brother’s name during a traffic stop on the North Cross Valley Expressway.
• May 15, 2014: West Pittston police charged Kovalski with stealing a Stihl backpack blower that was purchased by his former employer, M. Mayo Stripping, from the Old Mill Pine hardware store.
• Oct. 4, 2013: West Hazleton police charged Kovalski with burglary, theft, receiving stolen property and criminal conspiracy when he allegedly forced open a patio door to a house on East Oak Street and removed three large containers of coins. A surveillance video at a grocery store allegedly recorded Kovalski and two people using a coin machine.