A Bucks County man has been charged with drug possession after he was caught stealing items from a motel.

According to the affidavit of probable cause filed by police Chief Jason Doll of the Franklin Township Police Department in the case against Mason Mahoney:

Between 6:50 to 7 a.m. Aug. 6, Doll received a phone call from the owner of Mooney’s Motel advising that he had a man, Mahoney, 25, staying at the motel who entered the basement through a window and removed items.

The owner said he heard a noise at the rear of the motel downstairs.

He went outside to see what was going on and found Mahoney digging through a pile of items that were under the steps and yelled at him.

Mahoney ran behind the motel and tossed a bag up through the window to his room, and then ran around the building and went back in the room.

The owner took police to the rear of the motel where several items were piled up that had been inside the basement. There was a cooking pot, skateboard, large copper pipes, a Maytag roller, small copper tubing, and a jug of cleaning fluid.

The owner said that this was where he confronted Mahoney while he was piling the items.

Police went to room 13 to speak with Mahoney.

Police asked if they could come in and Mahoney agreed. Upon speaking with him, Doll noted that his speech was slurred, his pupils were pin point, and he was covered in sweat and bleeding from a small cut on his head.

Doll noted that the basement has a short roof and the cut on Mahoney’s forehead may have been from hitting it on something in the basement.

Doll could see drug paraphernalia laying on the bed along with several different types of pills and pill bottles.

At that point, Doll told Mahoney that he was under arrest and handcuffed.

As Mahoney was being walked to the patrol car he said, “I only went in the laundry room to do my wash and didn’t do anything wrong.”

Doll then returned to the room while Mahoney was with Lehighton officer Robert DeFuso and collected several items of drug paraphernalia, including three glass pipes, several pieces of burned aluminum foil, a torch and several glass containers with unknown liquids.

Doll also collected a small plastic bag with eight pills believed to be Suboxone.

Mahoney said that he did go down to the basement to do his laundry, and that the door was unlocked.

However, the owner said the doors are never unlocked.

While in the basement, Mahoney looked around and collected the items, where he then placed them outside near the rear steps of the building with the intent to ask if he could have the items or possibly buy them, and felt that he did not do anything wrong.

Mahoney faces charges of burglary; criminal trespass; theft by unlawful taking; use/possession of drug paraphernalia; sell etc. controlled substance; and criminal attempt.

He is currently incarcerated in the Carbon County Correctional Facility in lieu of $20,000 monetary bail, and scheduled to have a preliminary hearing Aug. 26 before District Judge William Kissner of Palmerton.