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City police probe 2 armed robberies
The crimes took place within 90 minutes of each other.
YOUNGSTOWN — City police are investigating two early-morning armed robberies at different times and locations in the city.
One man and his girlfriend were robbed just before 12:30 a.m. Wednesday on the North Side, and a second man was robbed in his home just before 2 a.m. Wednesday on the West Side.
In the first robbery, a 39-year-old Saranac Avenue man told police he was sitting in his car near Wick Park at the corner of Elm Street and Park Avenue talking to his girlfriend when a woman pulled behind his car and asked for help with her vehicle.
The man told police he looked in his rearview mirror and noticed a man crawling toward the passenger side of his vehicle. The man said he tried to get out of the car and run, but the crawling man got in the back seat, pulled out a gun and told him to get back in the car.
The man told police he told his girlfriend to run, and she got out of the car and ran. He told police he then grabbed a hand of the gunman’s and began struggling with him. He told police he pulled the man out of the car and continued to struggle until he was able to run off himself.
The man told police he ran to a nearby home and asked the occupants to call police. When officers returned to the car, the man discovered his keys, a ring and a laptop computer missing.
In the second robbery, a 19-year-old Rhoda Avenue man told police he was awakened by someone ringing the doorbell. The man said he answered the door to find a man in a black hoodie and bandanna standing there.
The 19-year-old said he was thrown to the ground, and two other men wearing similar clothes as the first man began going through his pockets demanding that he hand over money. One of the men was waving a bandanna in his face he believed to have concealed a handgun.
The man told police the thieves made off with about $30, police said.
jgoodwin@vindy.com