UPDATE: Robert Bender pleaded guilty in Indiana County Court to nine felony charges of gun theft and the remaining misdemeanor theft-related charges filed against him. A sentencing date has yet to be announced.
28-year-old Robert Dale Bender of Indiana is scheduled for Plea Court at the Indiana County Courthouse today. Bender will answer charges in 28 criminal filings for a theft spree targeting unlocked vehicles in White Township over a six-month period starting in April of last year.
Police said at the time of his arrest in December that an acquaintance of Bender’s told them he sold the stolen items for drug money, and he would on occasion trade stolen guns for heroin, which he then sold. He’s accused of stealing anything he could get his hands on, his haul including eight guns, money, laptop computers, electronics, weapons, medications, and even bicycles. He would often leave his apartment on a bicycle and go “car shopping”, as he called it.
Police had descriptions matching Bender from witnesses, but could not catch him until security footage from an apartment complex helped them zero in on him. Additional surveillance from another facility the next month and from a Sheetz store enabled them to positively identify Bender, who was well-known to police because of his criminal record. His crime spree began shortly after his release from prison after serving time for theft
When he was arrested, bender told police he’d stolen from so many vehicles, he’d never be able to identify them all. He also claimed he targeted only unlocked vehicles and never damaged them. He is facing a total of 42 criminal charges, eight of them for felony gun theft.
