Cleaning Contractor Sentenced to Probation for Stealing More Than $15,000 from Merck Employees

Keith Heffintrayer | North Penn Now•

Joseph Cebollero, 37, of Philadelphia.

A Philadelphia man who worked as a cleaning contractor at the Merck facility on Sumneytown Pike has been sentenced to probation after stealing more than $15,000 in cash and checks from employees across the campus.

Joseph Cebollero, 37, pleaded guilty on Monday to one felony count of theft by unlawful taking, as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors. In exchange, nine additional felony and misdemeanor counts of theft by unlawful taking, as well as 19 additional counts of receiving stolen property, forgery, and identity theft, were dropped, court records show.

Cebollero was then sentenced to one year of probation by Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Thomas Rogers, according to court documents.

Police were initially contacted in August 2020 after an employee reported the theft of $60 cash from their wallet, as well as an unauthorized DoorDash charge of $17 made on his debit card. The victim told police the wallet was left in a backpack in their cubicle inside Building 38A of the campus.

The criminal complaint identifies an additional four victims who similarly reported having cash, checks, and credit cards stolen from their desks or cubicles. Multiple witnesses described seeing a thin Black male with a faded tattoo over his right eye being on location at the time of the thefts, and the male was later identified as Cebollero — an employee of a third-party cleaning contractor servicing the campus, police said.

According to the criminal complaint, Cebollero opened multiple bank accounts and deposited some of the stolen checks into those accounts. Other checks were made out to different individuals, with the total amount stolen exceeding $15,700, police said.

Investigators made contact with Cebollero by phone in February 2021, and when asked if he knew what incidents they were referring to, he allegedly replied "Yeah, that was a mistake on my part.” Charges were officially filed on Sept. 13, 2021, and an arrest warrant was issued, however Cebollero was able to avoid apprehension until August 2022.