Homeless man arrested in burglary after New Kensington apartment break-in attempt

A homeless man who was barred in 2019 from entering the Central Towers public housing complex in New Kensington was arrested Tuesday, accused of trying to break into an apartment the day after its tenant died, according to authorities.

Paul Walter “Charlie” Graves, 54, was charged with felony counts of burglary and criminal attempt to commit burglary, along with criminal mischief and defiant trespass.

Graves is being detained in Westmoreland County jail in lieu of a $50,000 cash bond. He is scheduled to appear before District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr. for a preliminary hearing March 2, according to court records.

The manager of the Westmoreland County-owned apartment complex reported to police Tuesday that a maintenance worker discovered someone caused about $800 in damages to a combination lock system for an apartment that was empty because the tenant died the previous day, according to a criminal complaint.

Police viewed video from surveillance cameras that showed a man, later identified as Graves, in the hall near the apartment about 4:15 a.m. taping blue Solo cups over security cameras, the complaint said.

The suspect looked directly into the lens of a camera before he covered it with the plastic cup, investigators said.

About half an hour after the cameras were covered, the cup fell off one of them, and the same man is seen using a pry bar to try to get into the apartment before giving up and leaving, the complaint said.

Later the same day, the building manager reported the man seen in the video was sleeping in a chair in the building’s lobby, the complaint said. The manager told police she learned the man is known to others as Charlie.

Officers went to the apartment building to wake the man and identified him as Graves before taking him into custody, police said.

Police said Graves admitted placing the plastic cups over the security cameras.

During the investigation, police learned the director of the Westmoreland County Housing Authority issued a no-trespassing order that prohibits Graves from going into Central Towers and the Kensington Manor apartments.