A couple is in hot water and now jail after police arrested them on charges that they traded heroin for stolen items.
Angela Daurizio, 28, and Adam Paquette, 26, both of Middletown, are charged with criminal use of a communication facility, driving without a license and several counts of conspiracy. Paquette faces extra charges of receiving stolen property and theft.
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The two were arrested by Falls Township police earlier this week during a sting that involved an informant.
According to police, the informant told investigator he stole electronics and jewelry from a home on Oak Lane where he rented a room. An affidavit of probable cause shows the informant admitted to taking thousands of dollars of items from the family that let him rent a room in their house.
Daurizio and Paquette are accused of trading heroin for the stolen items. Police said in court papers the couple was selling the items via pawn shops and online sites like eBay. Records, according to court papers, show numerous items were sold in the past three months.
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The investigation into the couple began after the Oak Lane family confronted the informant after items including a video camera with a “sentimental moment” on it was taken.
A police surveillance and sting operation began and ended Tuesday with the arrest of the couple outside the Levittown home where the two lived in Middletown, court papers say.
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Police collected extensive text-message communications between the couple and the informant. The messages listed in court papers deal with the exchange of stolen goods for various quantities of drugs.
The informant told detectives he used to be a drug addict but became clean. Then, the informant said he met Paquette while working at a chain restaurant in Middletown and slowly became hooked on drugs again. Once he lost his job, the informant began stealing from his landlady’s house in Falls to fund his habit.
The couple was arraigned and remanded to Bucks County prison on 10 percent of $50,000 bail.
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Editor’s Note: All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.
