"Masked" Man Arrested Breaking into Cars at High School

A man holding a cloth over his face and claiming he "washed his hair with beer" has been charged with stealing items from a car parked outside Southern Lehigh High School, according to court records.

Joseph Sanchez, 31, was arrested June 8 at the high school and charged with theft from a motor vehicle, receiving stolen property, trespassing and public drunkenness.

According to the arrest affidavit, an Upper Saucon police officer assigned to the high school was contacted by a teacher who reported a "strange older male moving around the vehicles near the tennis courts."

The arresting officer observed the following: “The male, subsequently identified as [Sanchez], had a cloth held over his face. He then pushed the front passenger window [of a parked vehicle] down and entered the inside compartment with his upper torso. [Sanchez] was then observed to remove himself from the vehicle, while continuing to hold the cloth over his face with one hand holding a cell phone he removed from the vehicle in the other.”

When confronted, Sanchez claimed he knew the vehicle's owner and was borrowing the cell phone to make a call. Sanchez could not provide the name of the vehicle's owner, though, and the arresting officer observed that the purse inside the vehicle had been entered as well. The arresting officer detected the odor of alcohol on Sanchez’s breath. When asked if he had been drinking, Sanchez “replied that he had washed his hair with beer this morning.”

Sanchez was arrested and two cell phones, an iPod, a cigarette lighter and a ring of car keys were found in his possession. A search of the stolen phone revealed that Sanchez had made an unauthorized call to his friend.