A 33-year-old Philadelphia man is facing 15 criminal charges after allegedly rifling through casino employees' cars parked outside Hollywood Casino Morgantown, then leading Caernarvon Township police on a high-speed chase that ended when the stolen sedan he was driving slammed into two buildings on Main Street.
Corporal William Smith and Officer William Kase were dispatched to Hollywood Casino at 6021 Morgantown Road just after 1:18 a.m. on August 15 after casino staff reported that two employees' vehicles had been broken into, according to NBC10 Philadelphia. Investigators say the suspect, later identified as Terrance Watson, made off with two wallets, $100 in cash, a gym bag, and a basketball. When officers spotted him leaving the casino grounds, he took off in a silver sedan, sparking a pursuit that ended when the car crashed into two properties at 3160 and 3146 Main Street, according to the Caernarvon Township Police Department.
Watson fled the crash site on foot, but the department's account notes that a citizen tip reporting a suspicious person near Twin Valley Road and Elverson Road helped officers close in on him. Chief Paul Stolz personally joined the search, which drew in additional officers from Robeson and Exeter townships to establish a multi-township perimeter before Watson was taken into custody.
A Long List of Charges Follows the Chase
Police ultimately filed 15 separate charges against Watson, ranging from receiving stolen property and theft to fleeing police, resisting arrest, criminal mischief, recklessly endangering another person, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, possession of an instrument of crime, evading arrest, and driving without a license, per the same police account. The charges span both the casino parking lot break-ins and the chase that followed.
The vehicle Watson was driving had been reported stolen out of Philadelphia before the incident, according to Newport Dispatch. Morgantown sits roughly 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia, connecting a suburban Berks County crime scene to a stolen car that started its journey in the city. Watson was arraigned before a Berks County magistrate following his arrest, with bail set at $75,000; he remained in custody after failing to post that amount, Newport Dispatch reported.
The Legal Stakes of a High-Speed Pursuit
Under Pennsylvania law, fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer is typically charged as a misdemeanor, but it can rise to a third-degree felony when a driver engages in a high-speed chase that endangers officers or the public, according to Goldstein Mehta LLC. Separately, Pennsylvania treats theft from a motor vehicle as its own offense, graded as a second-degree misdemeanor when stolen property is valued between $50 and $200, or a first-degree misdemeanor above $200, the firm notes.
A Casino Known for Its Highway Access
Hollywood Casino Morgantown opened as an 80,000-square-foot Category 4 mini-casino in December 2021, built by Penn Entertainment at the junction of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, I-176, and Route 10 — a location that offers quick regional highway access for visitors traveling from Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board renewed the casino's license for five years in August 2025, noting the venue had generated more than $315.7 million in gross gaming revenue and nearly $144 million in state tax revenue since opening, and that it operates 675 slot machines and 29 table games.
The Caernarvon Township Police Department that responded to the overnight call is a relatively small operation, with 11 full-time officers covering a 9-square-mile municipality of roughly 4,250 residents, according to information from Caernarvon Township. It remains unclear whether additional stolen property was recovered from the sedan or what the total damage to the two Main Street properties amounted to, and no preliminary hearing date has yet been reported.
