Pennsylvania State Police have arrested the suspect identified last week in connection with a theft where the alleged thief was selling the stolen goods on eBay.

Chad D. McLaughlin, 34, 14 Campbell Hill Road, was charged on July 20.

The burglaries are alleged to have occurred between July 2020 and March 20, 2021, at 201 Main St. in Tidioute. The investigation commenced when troopers were dispatched to 201 Main St. for a burglary report. They met with the owner who said that the home used to be his parent’s residence “but he currently resided in Pittsburgh, Pa., so he was unable to visit the house frequently,” according to the affidavit of probable cause.

The residence was reportedly built by a Civil War major — Eliot Curtis — “and contained a large amount of his belongings.”

The owner told police he arrived at the residence and found the backdoor unlocked, according to the affidavit. When he entered he “realized a safe and its contents along with a picture frame containing a letter from President McKinley were missing from the office.”

The owner then went to the third floor “to discover a large collection of antique tobacco pipes were stolen as well.”

Troopers identify that the collection included at least 36 pipes as well as other historical items such as U.S. Liberty coins, Curtis’ diary, a photograph, book and five antique wooden clocks.

The owner, police detail, said that he would develop a list of all the stolen items once he could meet with relatives but that it “would most likely take a considerable amount of time to produce.”

Just over a week later, troopers received a call from the Tidioute postmaster, who had seen a release regarding the theft of antique pipes.

The postmaster “recalled sometime in January while she was working Chad McLaughlin had entered the post office to mail out a package.” She asked what it was “to which McLaughlin responded that it contained antique tobacco pipes.”

Troopers went back to the owner indicating that a suspect had been identified and the owner allegedly told police they had “located an eBay account under the name ‘Chad16351” and that he had reviewed “many of the items sold on the account…. (that) were stolen from his house.”

16351 is the Tidioute zipcode.

“One of the items listed on eBay,” police allege in the affidavit, “was Major Eliot Curtis’ diary from the war.” The owner said “this diary was not replicated and that this was the only copy so he was sure McLaughlin was involved in the burglary in some capacity.”

Troopers then matched items sold on the eBay page with pictures of items provided by the victim.

They then sought a search warrant through eBay’s law enforcement website and were provided information for the user ID which included McLaughlin’s name, email and postal addresses and IP address, among other things. Troopers brought in the Forensic Service Unit for fingerprinting as hand prints on a garage window had been observed. Troopers were unable to obtain that print and stated that “it possibly looked like the actor had been wearing gloves.”

Last month troopers reached out to the people who purchased items from chad16351 “to inform them that they most likely were in possession of stolen property.” Police asked that the buyers provide images of what they had purchased. Many responded, including one who purchased a pipe that they identified as the “unicorn” of pipe purchases, explaining they would have spent twice as much as chad13651 asked. The victim provided a list of all the stolen items with total estimated loss at $115,500.

A second search warrant revealed, troopers allege, that McLaughlin had sold the 1861 diary to a buyer in North Carolina. Police filed a total of 154 criminal charges in connection with this case, all felonies, including one count of burglary, a count of criminal trespass for breaking into a structure, 76 counts of theft and 76 counts of receiving stolen property, online court records show. McLaughlin was arraigned by District Judge Todd Woodin last Thursday afternoon and released on $50,000 unsecured bail, online court records show. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 3 at 3 p.m.