Saturday, June 27, 2009
Child playing with matches starts fire
CAMPBELL — A child playing with matches or a lighter started a fire at a city home Friday. Firefighters got the call at 11:42 a.m., the department reported.
The upper floor of the home at 92 Van Buren St. was heavily damaged, the department reported. The fire started in the 4-year-old boy’s bedroom.
The department said the boy’s mother, Jamie Bonilla, was downstairs when the fire began.
She went upstairs to check on the boy and was overcome by smoke. She was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center as a precaution. Everyone got out of the house safely.
Robbers assault man
YOUNGSTOWN — Police are looking for the men who broke into a North Side man’s home and assaulted him while searching for valuables.
Police said the 19-year-old Rhoda Avenue man was sleeping on a couch just after 5 a.m. Thursday when he was awakened by three men, all dressed in black and wearing masks, standing over him. One of the men punched him in the face as he tried to get off the couch.
The man told police the burglars grabbed a video-game system and several games before running out a living-room door. The man told police the incident marks the second time unidentified men entered his home to steal items.
Robber wears disguise
NILES — A gunman dressed as a woman got away with an undisclosed amount of cash from a U.S. Route 422 check-cashing business.
A man described as a light-skinned black man, between 5 feet 5 inches and 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing between 120 and 140 pounds, with a thin mustache, wearing a shoulder-length brown women’s wig, sundress with floral print, women’s sunglasses and white tennis shoes walked into Advance America Cash Advance about 1 p.m. Friday.
He pointed a small handgun at employees and demanded money from the register, said police Capt. Ken Criswell.
Employees complied, and the gunman grabbed the money and fled the store, dropping much of the cash as he ran.
No one was injured, and police are investigating.
Public-indecency arrest
BOARDMAN — A man was arrested Thursday afternoon in connection with a complaint that he had exposed himself to a mother and her 3-year-old daughter last week in the Southern Park Mall parking lot.
Police said Marc A. Chicase, 32, of FairgroundBoulevard in Canfield, is charged with misdemeanor public indecency. He was in the Mahoning County jail.
The police report says that “Chicase realized the female had observed what he was doing, when she yelled something at him as he drove away.”
Report investigated
GIRARD — Police and Trumbull County Children Services are investigating a report of a 7-year-old girl’s being touched inappropriately by a 59-year-old man. Police were notified Thursday of the incident, which did not occur in the city. The girl told her grandmother what had happened. The man has been questioned by police.
Read-In to show support for libraries scheduled
WARREN — Warren-Trumbull County Public Library patrons and others who love to read are invited to participate in a Read-In from 11 a.m. to noon Monday at the main library, 444 Mahoning Ave. N.W.
James Wilkins, library director, said the Read-In is a way for the public to show support of local libraries.
“There won’t be any speeches or rallying,” Wilkins said. “We just want people who love libraries to bring a blanket or lawn chair and spend some time outdoors reading their favorite book.”
The Read-In is planned for the front lawn of the library facing Mahoning. In case of inclement weather, the event will be moved indoors.
Gov. Ted Strickland has outlined a proposed budget that would cut the public library fund by $227.3 million. About 70 percent of the state’s public libraries rely solely on state funding.
Mosquito spraying
WEATHERSFIELD — Township officials will have Alexander’s Pest Control spraying for mosquitoes throughout the township July 13 and Aug. 10.