Levittown Man Charged for Cutting Verizon Wires; Co-Conspirator Still at Large

A Levittown man has been arrested and a Morrisville man is being sought by Falls Township Police accused of cutting down and stealing Verizon wires causing about $20,000.00 in damages.

According to Falls Twp Police, on Friday October 31, 2025 at 12:26 a.m., Falls Township Police  were on patrol in the area of Newbold Rd and Geoffery Rd, where an officer observed a stranded wire, hanging down from a utility pole #172B. As the officer continues to investigate further down Newbold Rd, towards Silvi Concrete, he observed a partial Verizon wire that was cut from pole #3503.

Officer Dean Stecklair had driven down Old Bristol Pike and Newbold Rd, earlier in the night and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary  notice that wire, laying on the ground or the Verizon wire hanging from the pole. He and Officer Robert Goodwin checked the businesses and the railroad tracks behind the businesses finding nothing unusual, according to the probable cause. 

Officer Stecklair then started to check the rest of Newbold Rd and Lower Morrisville Rd, and didn’t see any other wire remnants. He headed back the opposite way and started to check Newbold Rd to Old Bristol Pike and observed a maroon Ford Escape, bearing PA registration MGL0978 that was parked on the shoulder of Old Bristol Pike.

It was not in front of a business, police noted in court papers which seemed odd to Stecklair and there are usually no vehicles parked in that area at this time of the night.

Police than ran the tag  and it came back registered to a Thomas Fritsch out of Bangor. Since Bangor is not on close proximity to Falls Twp  anywhere around here an officer checked on the vehicle finding no one in it at the time, says the criminal complaint. 

Officer Stecklair  looked in through the side window, observing  a tool bag and a Makita battery powered grinder, with a metal cut blade on it. The Verizon wire that was cut, was a thick bunch of wires, wrapped in sheathing about 4 inches in diameter. The wire was thick enough that it had to be cut with a tool. He thought it was suspicious that the vehicle was just down the street from where the wire was cut and there was a tool in the back of it that could of cut wire. Stecklair and Goodwin checked the surrounding area, for Fritsch, or whoever was driving the vehicle. They checked the area of the old U-Pull It, which was diagonally across from where the vehicle was located. 

The police officers searched the entire property, but we did not locate anyone, wire or sheathing.

To get to the property, the officers explained in court papers, they had to walk down a hill/driveway, which leads to the canal path, or to the entrance to the U-pull it scrap yard. After extensively checking the area and not finding any signs of wire, Officer Stecklair went back to his vehicle and repositioned it to be out of site, but where he could watch the Ford, according to the criminal complaint. 

Stecklair backed his patrol vehicle up to the back entrance of the Del Val trailer park and waited. About 15 to 20 minutes, later  he observed a male enter the Ford and start it. The headlights and brake lights came on and he pulled away from the shoulder of the roadway.

The driver pulled forward, but then made a quick U-turn and started to head back to the intersection of Old Bristol Pike and Newbold Rd. Officer Stecklair pulled out onto the roadway and stared to follow behind him. Since he ran the vehicle’s registration earlier, he  knew the registered owner of the vehicle had a suspended license. As the officer followed behind the vehicle, it made an abrupt U-turn onto East Tyburn Rd and then pulled into the driveway of a house on the corner. As the vehicle made the U-turn, Officer Stecklair  could see the driver was the registered owner of the vehicle, Thomas Fritsch. Stecklair pulled into the driveway and activated his  emergency red and blue lights and conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle.

Police said the vehicle was occupied by Fritsch and a passenger.

Both men, were sweating profusely and were very dirty observed the officers even though was 47 degrees out and it was not hot, police said.

Fritsch was asked if he was the registered owner of the vehicle and he stated yes. Stecklair asked him why he was driving and he stated because his girlfriend was driving the car and it broke down and he had to come and put gas and oil in the vehicle. There was no gas can or any oil cans that Stecklair could see in the general vicinity

As police were talking to them, the officer could see they had head lamps, flash lights and gloves on them. Based on Officer Stecklair’s  15 years of training and experience, investigating cases, he knew that these are tools used by people who are stealing things during the night time hours. The officer asked what he was doing and he stated that him and the passenger, who was identified as Kenneth Benjamin, walked to the car from Morrisville. Police asked him where in Morrisville and Benjamin stated his friend’s house. When Officer Stecklair started to ask specific questions, like what is his address and where exactly does he live, he stated he didn’t know. They were observed coming from the area near the U-Pull it as they walked across the street to the car. Stecklair asked them what way they took to walk here from Morrisville and they stated the canal path, says the probable cause.

As police continued to question the suspects, their story just did not make sense, the officers noted in the probable cause.

He also observed a green bookbag that was behind Benjamin, that was not in the vehicle before then got in it. Fritsch and Benjamin were asked to exit the vehicle and walk to the back of his car so that police could talk with them. Officer Stecklair asked Benjamin what was in the book bag and he stated he didn’t know. The officer asked him if the bookbag was his and he stated, “Yes”. It was suspicious to Stecklair that he stated he didn’t know. He then stated, “Just some tools”. The officer asked him if it was ok if he looked in the book bag. Benjamin, looked very nervous, he paused and lost his words. He then gave police permission to look in the bookbag.

According to police inside the book bag was a battery operated Sawzall, with extra batteries. On the Sawzall blade, was a very fine metal, almost like gold dust, which matched the metal from the Verizon wire.

Cpl. Ryan Murphy, who was now on scene asked Benjamin why he had the tools and he stated that he brought them to work on the car, since the car had broken down. Murphy asked him what he was going to do with the Sawzall in the car and if he was working on the body of the car. Benjamin, police said,  was thrown off by the question and just answered yes.

Police while checking the front pocket of the bookbag, the front pocket Stecklair located red electrical tape. This tape-was also on one of Benjamin’s fingers, which was noticed while police were speaking with him.

As police continued speaking  with Fritsch and Benjamin, Cpl. Murphy and Ofc. Goodwin went to look for anything they could find, in the area of where they had come out from. Moments later they reported  over the that they located Verizon wire, stripped and laying on the ground, on the hill of U-Pull it, right were Stecklair and Ofc. Goodwin had previously checked. When Stecklair went over to inspect the wire, it was wrapped in bundles with red electrical tape. He secured the wire in his patrol vehicle and searched the area around there with Cpl. Murphy and Ofc. Goodwin. They searched a large area, but could not locate the sheathing for the wire.

Fritsch and Benjamin were confronted about cutting the Verizon wire, which they denied. He uncuffed them and asked Fritsch if he could search his vehicle. He did not give the officer permission, so the vehicle was impounded for a search warrant. Fritsch stated he needed his phone, which was in the center console of the vehicle. Fritsch was advised that he could have his phone, if there was no incriminating evidence on it and if Stecklair could look through it. Fritsch gave police permission to look in his phone. It was not password protected and opened up with a push of the side button. The first text message was from a “junior” who Fritsch later advised was Benjamin. It read, “So there is 13 lbs of copper and I still have like half to finish”. That message was sent on Wednesday October 29, 2025 at 12:15 a.m.

On Monday November 3, 2025 Officer Stecklair spoke to a Verizon employee. He informed the employee of the thefts over the past couple days and asked him if he could identify the wire that was recovered.

On Thursday November 6, 2025 police received an email from the Verizon employee, who handles all the repairs for Verizon that stem from vandalisms in the area. The officer provided the employee with a general area of where the thefts occurred and the employee responded to those locations. After Verizon’s assessment of the damage, it was determined that the cost of the repairs would be approximately $19,000 USC. The employee provided several pictures and pointed out that lag screws were used to most likely climb the poles, so that the wire could be cut, police wrote in court papers.

On Saturday November 22, 2025 Stecklair executed both search warrants on the Ford vehicle and the cell phone. He arrived at the  impound lot, where the vehicle is being held and entered the locked vehicle. He started the search on the driver’s side front seat and located on the front floor board a black glass case. In the glass case, was a glass pipe, with an off-white residue, suspected to be methamphetamine. There was a small Ziplock baggie in the case as well as a gold colored cylinder twist top container. In the gold container, there is a large crystal-like substance, suspected as methamphetamine. The crystal-like substance was NIC tested and it was positive for the presence of methamphetamine, police said in court papers.

After the search of the vehicle was completed, there were numerous tools located in the vehicle, some associated with wire cutting or cutting tools in general. On the front seat was a green backpack, with a shamrock on the front of it. This backpack was seen the night of the traffic stop. Benjamin admitted that the backpack was his along with the contents inside of it.

According to police inside the backpack were a battery powered Milwaukee Sawzall with a battery, various handheld tools including wire cutters, wrenches, power tester, wire strippers, glasses and red electrical tape, which was in the front pocket of the bag. There were also additional metal cutting blades for the Sawzall, Some of which had a gold like substance, which resembled the Verizon wire, once it is cut. Verizon wire is so thin and fine, it turns to a dust like substance when cut. This is the substance that was on the cutting blade. Stecklair also located a black mask and head lamp. Items consistently used to hide the identity of people who are committing crimes at night.

Fritsch, was arraigned on four felony theft conspiracy counts, misdemeanor drug offenses and was freed. He has pending court date sent for Jan 27.

Benjamin has yet to be taken into custody and remains at large as of publication time.