Boardman businesses report 3 robberies

A Chinese-food delivery
driver was robbed of food and cash while trying to deliver a food order.

BOARDMAN — Employees at three township businesses reported robberies over the weekend.

About 9:30 p.m. Sunday, someone called Main Moon restaurant, Market Street, placing a $33 order to be delivered to a Pearson Circle apartment.

When a driver attempted to deliver the food, no one answered the door. The restaurant then got another call, asking that food be delivered to the same address.

The driver went to the address again and as he tried to ring the buzzer, he saw two men walk up to his car.

When the driver asked what the two men were doing, they demanded money. He said that he didn’t have any and gave them the food.

One of the men again demanded money and pointed at the driver something in his jacket pocket that was shaped like a gun, then punched him in the cheek and took $100 from his hand.

The two robbers fled.

The resident of the apartment where the driver tried to deliver the food, an 85-year-old woman, told police that she hadn’t ordered anything.

The phone number returns to Perkins Restaurant, Boardman-Canfield Road. An employee there told police that she had seen a man who matched the description of one of the robbers using the phone shortly before the crime was reported.

About 5 p.m. Friday, police were called to Dollar General, South Avenue, where an employee told then that a man approached her at the cash register and demanded money.

She complied and he ran out of the store. Two witnesses tackled the suspect near Mathews Road just before police arrived.

Charles Boerio, 32, of Wolosyn Circle was arrested and charged with robbery. He was lodged in the Mahoning County Jail.

Shortly after 9 p.m. Friday, another robbery was reported at Best Buy, Boardman-Poland Road.

An employee told police that a woman went through the register to buy merchandise and then began arguing with the cashier regarding the amount of change she’d received.

The woman reached into the register drawer and tried to remove money, and the cashier struggled with her. The woman and a man who accompanied her then fled the store.

The cash drawer was $400 short, but it was undetermined how or when the money was taken.

A manager at the store declined to comment.