Crime & Safety

Plainfield Township Man Accused of Stealing $100 from Bethlehem Police

After he was caught buying heroin, Robert Pysher agreed to help catch dealer, but he ran off with pre-recorded cash, police say.

Written by Daryl Nerl

A Plainfield Township man recruited to help Bethlehem police catch a suspected heroin dealer is accused of stealing $100 he was given to make a controlled drug buy, according to court records.

Robert J. Pysher, 25, of 536 Frable St., was first arrested in the parking lot of the South Bethlehem McDonald’s Wednesday afternoon after he was observed in his pickup truck holding a hypodermic needle of brown fluid that later field-tested positive for heroin, police said.

He had just dropped off a suspected drug dealer in the same parking lot, police said.

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While being questioned at police headquarters, Pysher told police that he was willing to become a confidential informant to help them catch the suspected drug dealer, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

Police searched Pysher and his truck to make sure it was drug- and money-free before providing him with $100 of prerecorded cash, the affidavit says. Then, in the presence of police, Pysher text-messaged the suspected dealer and set up a time and a place to buy more heroin.

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A short time after that, police set up surveillance at the meeting location. There, arresting officer Patrick T. Maczko observed the suspected dealer get into Pysher’s truck and drive a few blocks away.

The suspected drug dealer—identified in court papers as Manuel Garcia—then got out of the truck and was immediately picked up by police in marked patrol cars. Garcia had heroin on him, police said.

Then, Maczko wrote, he called Pysher on his cell phone. Pysher told Maczko that Garcia had not sold heroin to him because he observed police activity in the area. Maczko told Pysher to meet him to return the $100 in cash, but Pysher hung up the phone and never showed, court papers say.

Pysher was charged with theft, possession of heroin and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was arraigned Friday before District Judge Roy Manwaring of Bethlehem and released on $15,000 unsecured bail.




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