Pickup truck damaged

Pickup truck damaged
SALEM -- A man told police someone broke the passenger-side mirror and trim on his GMC pickup while it was sitting in an industrial parking lot along Railroad Street.
The crime was reported at 7:13 a.m. Thursday.
Fire damage contained
SALEM -- Authorities are crediting passers-by with helping save a Perry Township house from burning down.
Witnesses spotted a truck on fire in a driveway next to a home at 1790 state Route 344 around 10:08 p.m. Tuesday.
They reported the fire to township police, who notified the township fire department, which put out the fire.
The truck was registered to Jerry Menough, who lives in the home.
Besides the truck, siding on an attached garage was damaged by flames.
Loss was estimated at $2,500.
A police report did not state the cause of the fire.
Cell-phone solution
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Can you hear me now? Probably not, if you're on the Port Authority of Allegheny County's light-rail system when it tunnels under the city of Pittsburgh and other locations.
But a solution is in the works.
Concerned about complaints from "T" riders who lose their cell-phone service when the trains go underground, the port authority is negotiating with cell-phone companies for technology to fix the problem.
"As a 'T' rider myself, it's very common to hear someone say, 'I'm going into the subway, so I've got to go now,'" said port authority spokesman Bob Grove.
Henry Nutbrown, the authority's assistant general manager for engineering and construction, said what's being negotiated is the fee that cell-phone companies will pay the authority for their customers to have underground phone service.
The cell-phone companies will also provide the necessary equipment, meaning the service won't cost the authority anything, Nutbrown said.
At least two cell-phone companies are interested in the idea, Grove said.
Parking tax cuts business
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The city's 50 percent parking tax, the highest in the nation, is driving away customers in city lots.
The new tax, up from 31 percent, took effect Feb. 1. Since then, at least one Pittsburgh Parking Authority garage has reported a 20 percent drop in business and several other lots and garages are off by 10 percent or more, executive director Ralph Horgan, told the authority's board on Thursday.
The authority operates 13 lots and garages with 8,121 spaces, plus another 34 metered lots with 1,851 spots.
Mayor Tom Murphy and city council adopted the tax increase to raise revenue for the city and as an alternative to cutting city jobs.
The city has been granted distressed status by the state.
Horgan said the tax increase, coupled with the negative publicity, is driving people away.
"I would argue that the parking tax increase, the negative perception of Downtown, is all part and parcel of that," Horgan said.
Police: Beware of trick
NILES -- A man contending he is a relative of a local restaurateur is tricking people out of their money, police said.
The white male is 5 feet 11 inches tall with a medium build, brown hair and brown eyes, reports show.
Most recently, he entered the Trumbull County Convention and Visitors Bureau around 4:30 p.m. Thursday and told an employee he was a relative of Robert Abruzzi, owner of Cafe 422, and needed $20 to pay someone to get his keys unlocked from his vehicle.
The employee, who told police she is familiar with Abruzzi, gave the man the money and then saw him drive off in a white sports utility vehicle.
The woman told police that when she contacted Abruzzi, he told her he'd been informed by others in the area that the same thing happened to them.
Abduction attempt
NILES -- Police are searching for a man who reportedly tried to get a middle school pupil into his van by telling her he had puppies for her to see.
The 10-year-old West Park Avenue girl told police she was walking home from school on Hyde Street around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday when the white male with brown hair and a goatee pulled alongside her, opened his door and asked her to get in to see the puppies.
The girl ran home and told her mother, who called police.
The girl also told police the van had writing on the side, but reports do not list what the writing was.