Men rob lone driver at gunpoint on East Side

YOUNGSTOWN — A city man was tied up and held at gunpoint, after three men forced him from his car and into theirs.

The victim said he was driving on Lansdowne Boulevard on the East Side, about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, when he saw a car parked in the middle of the road.

He told police he slowed down because the men looked like their car was broken down, when two of them — one holding a handgun and the other a shotgun — jumped out in front of his car.

The victim said the men dragged him from his car at gunpoint and forced him into a blue Oldsmobile. They told him to close his eyes as they drove him to what seemed to be a vacant house. Once inside, the victim’s hands were tied with duct tape.

The victim told police one of the men, estimated to be about 35 years old, 5 feet 8 inches tall and 190 pounds, left with a second man. They left him in the house with a third man, about 220 pounds and 6 feet 1 inch tall and wearing a mask.

He said the masked man kept asking where the money was and saying they were going to kill him.

After the other two men returned, the victim said they put him back into the car and drove him to the corner of Burbank and Richview avenues, on the West Side, where they let him out of the car. He walked to a house on Manhattan Avenue and called police.

Taken were a gold chain, a gold bracelet, a cell phone and a wallet containing an ATM card and $300 cash.