Man pulled naked from chimney

The man’s trousers came off after he got stuck.

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — A 48-year-old West Market Street man suffered only small abrasions when he had to be pulled from the chimney of a downtown landmark he had tried to enter.

Police were called to 100 Mahoning Avenue on the west side of Courthouse Square, where a witness saw a man around 1:45 a.m. Thursday wearing no shirt or shoes walking on the roof of the log cabin in Monument Park and then entering its chimney.

He got stuck, however, and was calling for help, the witness said.

When officers arrived, they asked the man, Richard L. Kline, what he was doing, and he replied that he was trying to go home because he was cold, according to a police report filed by Warren Patrolman Brian Martinek.

Kline tried to go down the chimney feet first and was stuck about 5 feet down, the police report said. He was complaining of leg and stomach pain.

From the ladder on a fire department truck, officers dropped a rope to Kline, who wrapped it around himself under his arms.

With help from a firefighter and ambulance personnel, officers pulled Kline out, but not before his pants dropped from his body into the fireplace inside the log cabin, leaving him naked.

Ambulance workers checked Kline and cleared him to be taken to jail with only small abrasions.

Kline, who was charged with a felony of breaking and entering, pleaded innocent to the charge Thursday morning in Warren Municipal Court. Judge Terry Ivanchek set bond at $10,000.

If convicted on the charge, he could get up to 12 months in prison.

The log cabin was reconstructed in the city’s Monument Park on the site of Warren’s first schoolhouse, built around 1804. It is used during a variety of celebrations downtown.