Robbers take TVs, computer from home

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — A 44-year-old woman who walked in on a burglary at her East Florida Avenue home was told at gunpoint to lie on the floor while the thieves took TVs and a computer.

The victim told police she noticed pry marks on her side door lock when she returned home around 6:20 p.m. Tuesday. Garbage from the kitchen trash can was on the floor, and the can was in the living room.

She got scared and went outside. Then, thinking that whoever had been in the house had left, she went back in, intending to use her cell phone to call her husband.

Two young men, ages 18 to 20, then came out of a bedroom, one with a handgun. One of the suspects grabbed her cell phone and kept it.

The men made two trips outside with items from the home, including two flat-screen TVs, a computer and computer games, reports show. The victim, after hearing car doors shut, looked outside and got the license number of the car the suspects were in. She went to a neighbor’s to call 911.

Police who checked the plate said the car, a 1996 Oldsmobile Cutlass, had been stolen in Niles on Dec. 31. The case has been assigned to Detective Sgt. Jason Simon. He said car was found at 1531‚Ñ2 S. Truesdale Ave., a vacant house on the East Side, the morning after the burglary.

Crime lab investigators processed the house and the stolen vehicle, Simon said.