Serendipity apparently helped Butler police solve — at least partially — a case of stolen pallets last month.

City police Thursday charged Jorden E. Jones, 26, of Slippery Rock Township in connection with the theft of about 50 pallets from the loading dock at the Pullman Square shopping plaza.

Two plaza stores, Kmart and Advance Auto Parts, own the pallets, valued at $290, that were taken either the evening of Feb. 10 or the early morning of Feb. 11.

An employee at Advance Auto Parts later in the morning of Feb. 11 happened to be at a store on Route 8 north in Butler Township where he noticed a pickup truck loaded with a high stack of pallets in the bed.

Some of those pallets, according to court documents, were marked as belonging to Advance Auto Parts.

The employee used his cell phone camera to take photos of the truck and its license plate, which he showed to police. The plate was traced to Jones, who owns the truck.

The suspect appeared at the police station Feb. 24 for an interview, during which he admitted the truck was his but that he does not drive it.

Jones told police that he owns a business that refurbishes pallets and his employees drive the truck “to gather pallets for him,” according to a police affidavit.

He claimed he did not know which of his employees was driving the truck the morning that the pallets turned up missing at Pullman Square, documents said, but he assured investigators that he would check his records and get back to them.

But as of Wednesday, police said they still had not heard from Jones, leading them “to believe that he is withholding information” that would aid their investigation, documents said.

Jones is charged with receiving stolen property and hindering apprehension or prosecution. His preliminary hearing is set for April 11.