Police: Armed thugs threatened baby, kidnapped pit bull puppy

YOUNGSTOWN -- City police are investigating an armed break-in where the criminals are said to have threatened the life of a man's granddaughter and kidnapped his puppy from a home on Lansdowne Boulevard.
The 44-year-old man told police he was shot at and forced into his cellar during the robbery Sunday afternoon after the robbers asked where the safe in his house was located. He told the men that he didn't have a safe.
The robbers also threatened to shoot his granddaughter, who was in an upstairs bedroom.
Guns pulled
The victim said that a man in his 20s stopped by the house about 3:30 p.m. and asked if he could buy parts from a van sitting in the yard. The man left and later returned with another man in his 40s. When the two men asked to see the van, one of the men pulled a black, semi-automatic gun on the homeowner.
A third man, holding a sawed-off shotgun, joined them and forced the man into the house. The men ordered the victim to take off his clothes and lie down on the living room floor. They then asked where the safe was, and the man denied he had a safe. One of the suspects fired a shot over the victim's head into a living room wall, police said.
The victim was then forced into his cellar, after continuing to deny that he had a safe. They also threatened his baby granddaughter's life if he didn't say where the safe was.
The robbers eventually left with $10, a PlayStation and pit bull puppy.
Police found a .22-caliber slug in the dining room adjacent to the living room.