East Earl Township

Police took it seriously and immediately started digging.

Records showed that Jonathan Gerlach was charged on November 6, 2025 with shoplifting tools from a hardware store in East Earl Township, Lancaster County.

Search warrants stated that the stolen items included a headlamp, a rechargeable LED glow stick, a hammer drill bit, medium-sized work gloves, and a metal cutting wheel with a combined value of $167.43. Investigators noted that during the same visit to the hardware store, Gerlach paid for more than $250 worth of other merchandise, Court documents emphasize that the items he did not pay for were tools commonly associated with burglaries.

He may have believed that stealing the tools would help him avoid detection, but instead it backfired and only drew further attention to his actions and raised suspicion.