Credit: Bensalem police
A Bristol Township man who caused more than $40,000 in damage during a spree of copper thefts was sentenced to county jail.
Michael Gragilla, 31, of Bristol Township’s Levittown section, was sentenced recently by Judge Wallace Bateman to 6 to 23 months in the county prison. He will be required to pay $40,800 in restitution and serve 5 years probation.
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Gragilla pleaded guilty earlier this year to 27 charges including theft, receiving stolen property and criminal mischief, according to a court docket.
According to court papers, Gragilla was involved in various copper thefts in Falls, Bensalem, Newtown, Northampton and Warminster. The stolen copper was sold for scrap in Bristol Township and Philadelphia.
Police said in late 2014 that Gragilla’s theft spree began in 2013. In early 2014, he suffered electrical burns in Delaware County at a PECO facility during an a possible theft.
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Investigators took sample of DNA at multiple crime scenes and used it to link Gragilla to many of the copper thefts, police said.
