Food Mart robbed

Food Mart robbed
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Police are searching for a masked man who robbed a convenience store. He is described as 5 feet 8 inches tall, medium build, wearing black tennis shoes, black jeans, a navy blue hooded sweat shirt, a flannel shirt and a black hat and mask. Police said he went into Tic Toc Food Mart on state Route 65 at 10:54 p.m. Wednesday with a baseball bat, jumped over the counter and demanded money. Police said he ran off with an unknown amount of cash.
Forgery charges
JAMESTOWN, Pa. -- Pennsylvania State Police said forgery charges are pending against a 35-year-old Main Street woman accused of using a forged prescription to try to get the painkiller OxyContin from the Jamestown Pharmacy on Liberty Street. Police said the woman presented the phony prescription at the drugstore around noon Monday.
Stolen cars recovered
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- A car theft in Pymatuning Township Wednesday led to the arrest of two suspects and the recovery of two stolen cars.
Pymatuning Township police said the owner of a 1989 Chevy Caprice reported the vehicle stolen from a parking lot in the 300 block of Arlington Drive around 12:50 p.m.
Police said it was being followed by a second vehicle when it left the area.
Police in Sharon spotted both vehicles about 10 minutes later and stopped them on Superior Street in Hermitage just off North Water Avenue.
Hermitage police said the second vehicle, a 1989 Chrysler New Yorker, had been stolen in Austintown a week ago.
Both vehicles were impounded and the drivers arrested. Hermitage police charged Robert L. Jones, 47, of Hughes Street, Youngstown, with receiving stolen property. He was driving the car stolen from Austintown.
Pymatuning police charged Ed Odem Jr., 51, of Emerson Avenue, Farrell, with the theft of the Chevy Caprice.
Both were arraigned and are in Mercer County Jail in lieu of bonds. Odem's is set at $15,000; Jones' is $7,500.
Gun theft
WEST MIDDLESEX, Pa.-- Pennsylvania State Police said someone stolen several rifles from the home of Earla McFarland on Bethel Road in Wilmington Township between November and Wednesday. The guns are valued at $1,050.
Theft charges filed
SHARON, Pa. -- Police arrested a former employee of Domino's Pizza at 797 E. State St. on theft charges Wednesday, saying he stole between $4,000 and $5,000 from the business between January and March. Joseph Scarmack, 27, of Prindle Street, turned himself in at the police station around 10 a.m. Police said that customers would pay full price for a pizza but that Scarmack would ring it up as a discount purchase and pocket the difference. He was arraigned before District Justice James McMahon and freed on his own recognizance.
Crewman survives
YOUNGSTOWN -- An 18-year-old Youngstown man is one of two survivors of a Coast Guard boating accident in western New York.
William Simpson was one of four crewmen aboard a Coast Guard patrol boat near Youngstown, N.Y., when a 4-foot wave capsized the boat Friday evening, sending the crew into Lake Ontario.
"The two who survived are going through grief counseling right now," said Paul Roszkowski, public affairs specialist with the Coast Guard. They were in the water about five hours before being rescued about 12:30 a.m. Saturday. Simpson and the other survivor, Michael Moss, 21, of Greensboro, N.C., were treated for hypothermia.
The two other crewmen died.
Fire victim identified
BERLIN CENTER -- The woman who died after a fire at her Heiser Road home Wednesday morning has been identified as Helene Albright Helsel, 49.
Her husband, Donald, 44, is in critical condition at Akron Burn Unit. The fire is under investigation.
River cleanup
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Mahoning Valley Association of Churches' Global Warming Task Force, in cooperation with the Mahoning River Consortium, will sponsor two events to help clean up the Mahoning River and its watershed. The first, April 21, will focus on Yellow Creek in Poland. The second, April 28, focuses on the Mahoning River near downtown Warren.