YOUNGSTOWN Police crack down on neighborhood burglaries

Officials and residents discussed ways to discourage potential burglars.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Police have been diligently working to solve a rash of burglaries in the Brownlee Woods and Buckeye Circle areas of the city, police officials assured members of a local block watch.
Police will likely charge a suspect soon with receiving stolen property, Police Chief Robert Bush told a near-capacity crowd of 50 concerned residents Monday at a meeting of the Buckeye Eyes and Ears Block Watch. "I'd like to think that we've solved your problem," he said.
A call from a local resident who saw and described some suspects and the car they occupied was important in the investigation of the home burglaries, Bush told the audience at Word of Grace Church on Mount Vernon Avenue, which included several people who said they were burglary victims. "Phone calls to the police department do work," Bush said.
Zero tolerance
Detective Sgt. Patrick Kelly, one of six members of the department's street crime unit, said his unit saturated the area with a zero-tolerance approach after the burglaries. "What we did was stop everything that moved in Brownlee Woods and Buckeye Circle. We generated probably 10 arrests" in 10 days, he said.
Charges against those arrested included gun law violations, driving with a suspended license and shoplifting from an auto parts store. Kelly said he interviewed burglary suspects in Trumbull County Jail, who provided information that solved two Youngstown burglaries and led to the whereabouts of people accused of fencing stolen goods. Victims will be notified of recovered property, but police will have to keep it as evidence until trials for suspects are over, he said.
City Councilman John Nittoli, D-7th, block watch president, said there had been six or seven home burglaries in the area since Christmas, most of them in the daytime when residents were away at work or school. He urged residents to be alert and call police when they see suspicious people or activity in the neighborhood.
Deterring burglars
Joe Kroynovich of Loveland Road, a block watch member, said "people sticking together and just watching everything," and reporting anything suspicious to police goes a long way toward preventing burglaries.
"I was afraid because nothing ever happens around here. It's a quiet neighborhood," said Allison Mallow, who resides in the Brownlee Woods area, describing her reaction to the recent burglaries. Because of the burglaries and recent cold weather, she said she has brought her dog indoors all day, and she believes the sound of the dog barking inside her house will scare away potential burglars.
Nittoli, Kroynovich and Mallow said an active block watch is an important defense against future burglaries. "Having neighbors looking out for each other is the best defense," said Mallow, who also advocates dog ownership and home security alarm systems.
Veronica Foster, coordinator of the South Side Weed and Seed program, urged residents to discourage burglaries by putting interior lights on timers and keeping the television on while they're away from home. Weed and Seed is a federally funded program of enhanced law enforcement and community improvement activities.
She also urged them to always keep garage doors closed to avoid tipping off potential burglars that cars are absent and that there might be nobody home. "Don't advertise that you're not home," she advised.
"If you are home, and somebody comes knocking at your door, you don't have to answer the door," she advised. "If they need your help, they'll tell you, and you tell them you'll call somebody," even 911, if necessary for an emergency, without opening the door, she added.
She also urged residents to avoid putting empty appliance, TV, computer and video game boxes in the curbside trash to avoid tipping off burglars to the existence of expensive new possessions in the house. She urged keeping these boxes in the house for awhile in case the item needs to be returned, then cutting them up and putting them inside a garbage bag for disposal.