YOUNGSTOWN Police dog's nose leads straight to suspect

The dog is known by his friends as a Czech shepherd.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Raymond L. Pankey curled up inside the old-style washer, hoping police would pass him by in the dark.
Maybe they would have, if not for Bar the police dog.
"He started tracking down to the basement, figured out the guy was no longer there, and then zoomed back up the stairs," said Detective Sgt. Scott White, Bar's handler. "He went to the back of the building and alerted on the washer."
Police had responded to a burglary-in-progress call Thursday at the former Master's Tuxedo on West Federal Street, now vacant and dark. Someone had gained entry by kicking in a basement door of the cavernous building.
Two large copper and aluminum pieces from a furnace had become stuck in the basement door when someone tried to push them out, White said.
No chance to hide: White and Patrolman Michael Lambert crept up to the washer and spotted a man's feet. "You gotta love this dog," Lambert grinned as he and White removed Pankey from the washer and handcuffed him.
White said Bar is a German shepherd from Czechoslovakia, so his friends call him a Czech shepherd.
Pankey, 45, of Fifth Avenue faces charges of breaking and entering and possession of criminal tools (the screwdriver). He told police he was only trying to get a little bit of aluminum.
At Pankey's arraignment Friday in municipal court, Judge Elizabeth A. Kobly set bonds that total $26,000. The court assignment office set a preliminary hearing for April 13 in Judge Kobly's court.
Other crimes: Municipal court records show that Pankey, as of March 28, had completed a one-year probation to Judge Robert A. Douglas Jr. on a criminal trespass conviction. The judge had sentenced him to 30 days in jail, suspended it all and ordered that he stay off Youngstown State University property, the clerk's office said.
Pankey's Mahoning County jail computer records -- back only to 1994 -- show that he has been convicted several times in municipal and common pleas courts of breaking and entering, receiving stolen property, aggravated menacing and criminal trespass. He's also violated parole on breaking and entering convictions in Mahoning and Franklin counties, records show.
Pankey's criminal history began in 1973, when he was 17, Vindicator files show.
He was found delinquent by commission of an armed robbery and sentenced to a reformatory. Over the years, he has served time in the county jail and state prisons.