Felony Charges Filed In Main Line Burglary Incidents

LOWER MERION TOWNSHIP, PA — Police in Lower Merion Township said two men have been arrested and charged in connection with burglaries in the township.

Jeffrey Saldarriaga, of Irvington, New Jersey, and Johasir Cisterna, of Baltimore, Maryland, both 22 and Peruvian nationals, are charged with felony burglary, loitering and prowling at night, possession of an instrument of crime, and related offenses after a home burglary in Bryn Mawr and an attempted home burglary in Villanova.

According to police, a home on John Barry Drive in Bryn Mawr was broken into the night of Tuesday, April 23.

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In that incident, the victim was alerted to the burglary via their home security cameras, which showed people walking around their home. Officers found two broken windows on the back of the home and found the main bedroom ransacked.

Then, shortly after, an attempted burglary occurred at a home on Cedar Lane in Villanova.

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The residents of that home told police they were on the second floor of the home when they heard glass break downstairs. One said they checked their house and found a broken first floor window and cut window screen.

Police said investigators developed a description of the suspects, and police nearby in Upper Merion Township stopped a vehicle in their jurisdiction.

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The vehicle had a registration plate that was stolen from Tredyffrin Township that same day, police said.

Authorities then connected the vehicle to the Lower Merion burglaries, and Saldarriaga and Cisterna were taken into custody.

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They were both remanded to Montgomery County Prison on April 25 in lieu of $25,000 bail. They are scheduled for May 9 preliminary hearings, court records show.

Lower Merion Police and other law enforcement agencies are investigating and making progress on these and other recent residential burglaries.

Anyone who may have information on these crimes is asked to call Lower Merion Police at 610-649-1000 or 610-645-6228.