Greensburg man accused of swiping victim’s phone in road rage incident
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A Greensburg man accused of grabbing a woman’s cell phone as she videotaped him June 10 during a road rage incident was charged with careless driving, harassment and theft by city police.
Timothy P. Kunkle, 42, is accused by police of grabbing the woman’s phone as she was recording an incident that covered several blocks between the intersection of West Pittsburgh and Main streets, near the courthouse, and ended in the vicinity of Grant Street and Maple Avenue.
Officer William Newmyer said that the woman alleged “Kunkle’s vehicle cut her off and then he began to brake check her on North Main Street in an attempt to get her to rear end him.”
Newmyer said Kunkle stopped his 2002 Toyota sport utility vehicle, exited and walked to her car, yelling at her “about cutting him off.”
When Kunkle returned to his SUV, the victim continued to follow him on North Main to the vicinity of Grant and Maple, where Kunkle did a U-turn and pulled next to her’s car. The woman, who is not from Greensburg, told police she was using a GPS device to get to her destination and was not intentionally following Kunkle.
The victim “had her phone out during the incident and was taking pictures of both Kunkle and his vehicle,” Newmyer wrote.
When Kunkle pulled along side the victim, he continued to yell, grabbed the phone from her hand “and drove off,” Newmyer reported.
The woman got out of her car on foot and pursued Kunkle, who eventually turned around and began driving back towards her on Grant Street “holding the phone out of his window.”
She knocked the phone from his hand and used it to call police, Newmyer reported.
“Kunkle was easily identifiable in the pictures (the victim took) and of his license plate,” he wrote in court documents.
Newmyer questioned Kunkle at his residence. He blamed the victim for “cutting him off” and “tailgating him,” the officer said.
Newmyer reported the phone was not damaged. Kunkle could not be reached for comment and an attorney was not listed in court documents.
A preliminary hearing will be scheduled before District Judge Chris Flanigan.