CLEARFIELD – A Philipsburg man is facing a felony theft charge for loading a truck with over $8,000 worth of items from a Chester Hill apartment.
Police say Raymond David Castro, III, 45, was living in the residence while it was being remodeled. The owner said Castro parked a U-Haul rental truck in front of the apartment and began loading it with material from the home in Aug. 2025.
Items taken totaled $8,025 and included nine pieces of 12 foot trim, tools, a camera, a drill, flooring tools, nailer, floor pulls, five boxes of hardwood, a box of records, pex tubing supplies, copper tubes, copper tees, pex nineties, paint and a box of lighting, according to the affidavit of probable cause.
On Oct. 27, investigators spoke with a witness who lives nearby. She reported that she saw Castro and a woman loading things into the truck at night but couldn’t see everything they were loading.
In Nov. the owner further reported that a woman rented the truck from a friend of his, using a fake credit card. They allegedly kept the truck an extra day and it seemed like they cancelled the credit card.
When this witness was questioned, he said he was driving around looking for the truck after it was not returned. He found it at a storage facility in Bigler.
The owner of the storage facility was interviewed and reported that the same woman rented the storage unit that rented the truck and was able to give police her contact information.
Another witness told police the woman was renting an apartment in Philipsburg from him. Castro who was staying with her, reportedly tried to sell him some flooring, claiming it was left over from a construction job. The witness did not buy the flooring but agreed to lower the security deposit on the apartment by $500 if Castro would install the flooring in the apartment, according to the report.
During centralized court on Wednesday, Castro waived his right to a preliminary hearing on felony theft by unlawful taking charges. His bail was lowered from $25,000 to $10,000 at the hearing. Online court documents indicate he is still incarcerated in the county jail.
No charges have been filed against the woman involved as of Wednesday.
