Moon Area High School student tried to steal neighbors’ identities, police say

MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Identity theft, fraud, and forgery: those are just some of the charges detectives in Moon Township filed against a high school student after they said he broke into a neighbor’s house, stole personal items, then tried to open nearly a dozen credit cards in their names.

A police investigation that started in the Woodland Ridge development has led to the arrest of Michael Farabaugh, 18, who detectives said tried to steal and possibly sell the identities of his neighbors.

Police say he broke into his neighbors’ house on Oak Highland Drive after social media posts indicated they were out of town for an extended period of time. Police spoke with the victims, who eventually realized they were missing several credit cards from their home, as well as the contents of a strong box, which included jewelry, money, savings bonds, collector coins, other family heirloom items and historic family documents.

The victims told police they had received several letters from credit card companies regarding the statuses of recent credit applications that they did not apply for. Police say Farabaugh tried to open 10 separate credit card accounts using the identities of the family members.

Moon Township residents said this hits too close to home, especially for one woman, who has been a victim of identity theft.

“It’s heartbreaking to me to hear these stories,” said Lisa Rae Derosa-Costanza. “It really ruined my life, so I feel for the families or anybody that’s a victim of this because it’s just a disaster.”

As part of their investigation, police worked with Moon Area High School’s IT department to search Farabaugh’s school-issued laptop and found his internet search history included “Lockpicking full course,” “How to use credit card to open door” and “Hacking and coding practice.” Police say he also searched the victims’ names and researched how to sell stolen identities.

Farabaugh was arrested and taken to the Allegheny County Jail.

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