Man accused of impersonating state agent, threatening employees of local convenience store

MOUNT OLIVER, Pa. — A North Fayette Township man, who police said pretended to be a state agent and threatened convenience store employees, has been arrested.

Mount Oliver Police Chief Matt Juzwick told Channel 11 Allegheny County Sheriff’s deputies caught Donald Blanchard, 48, in North Fayette and arrested him around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. He allegedly threatened to shoot deputies with an automatic rifle.

Surveillance cameras captured a frightening encounter inside Brownsville Beer and Convenient in Mount Oliver. Video from inside the store showed a man shouting at store employees demanding they get to the back room where there are no cameras.

“Everybody to the back,” Blanchard can be heard saying in the surveillance video. “Hello? Hello? Hello? Let’s go. Everybody to the back.”

Moments before, the suspect is seen waiting in line at the convenience store just before 1:30 p.m. on Friday, July 19.

Investigators in the criminal complaint said he was wearing a badge and a green official-looking T-shirt when he walked up to the counter telling workers he was a state agent from Harrisburg sent there to investigate the store.

Police, however, said it was all a lie and Blanchard is not with any agency at all.

“With no paperwork, with no actual...he must’ve been very aggressive or a very good actor,” said O.T., who co-owns Diiviinetime across the street from Brownsville Beer and Convenient.

Detectives said Blanchard closed the store.

“We had a lady come to the space for a little art therapy and she mentioned the shop was locked for a couple minutes,” said Nami Bey, who owns Diiviinetime.

Blanchard then asked the owner for the store’s business license and IDs from all the employees. He accused them of selling tobacco to underage kids.

Channel 11′s Antoinette DelBel spoke with the store owner over the phone. He told her he’d never done any illegal sales.

The owner said Blanchard threatened them to pay him $10,000 or go to jail. He said the suspect forced him, his brother and three employees to hand over their cell phones and go to the back of the store.

“You stay right here,” Blanchard is heard saying in the video. “No. No. No. No. Stay right here where I can see you. Everybody to the back.”

The shop owner said they were scared and were forced to stay in the back room for nearly 25 minutes before one of the workers called police.

Blanchard told police he was with a repossession agency called TDRecovery but that business couldn’t be found by investigators.

The criminal complaint said when Blanchard couldn’t provide ID or paperwork, he told officers, “This was just a show for them; this was just a scare tactic. I’m really just trying to get them to stop selling to little kids.”

Police Chief Juzwick said Blanchard has been charged with false imprisonment in the past.

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