Forks Police Charge Couple With Home Invasions

Forks Township police have charged a couple, including a Wilson resident, with burglarizing four homes during daytime hours and taking such items as flat-screen televisions, laptop computers, digital cameras, jewelry, coin collections and a debit card.

Police say Victor Luis Figueroa Jr., 29, of Reading and Lisa Marie Philhower, 39, of Wilson broke into four homes between May 16 and June 1.

According to reports filed June 23 in the office of District Judge Jacqueline Taschner, the couple allegedly broke into the homes through rear-basement windows or ground-floor windows during daytime hours on Sullivan Trail, Mitman Road, Bushkill Drive and Newlins Road West.  

The couple face four counts each of criminal trespass, theft by unlawful taking or disposition and receiving stolen property.

Items stolen from the homes, according to police, include several flat-screen televisions, game systems, laptop computers, jewelry, collectors' coins, men's and women's clothing items, navigational devices, digital cameras and a debit card.

Police said Philhower allgedly used the debit card at a WaWa on Cattell Street in Easton just minutes after breaking into the home on Newlins Road West on June 1.

Police said Philhower withdrew cash with the debit card and purchased food and cigarettes at the store. She was then seen leaving the store and driving away in a blue sedan. That sedan is registered to Philhower’s grandmother at a residence in Wilson, police said. Philhower was not at the residence when police arrived on June 2, but police said they found several items stolen from the homes.

The pair was picked up in the same blue sedan on June 5 by the Reading area's Muhlenberg Township police for allegedly fleeing from several burglaries in the township the same day.

Figueroa and Philhower are in Berks County Prison on the Muhlenberg Township charges.

This is the second set of burglaries in the township in recent weeks. Police are still investigating the first set.