Youngstown robberies involve vehicles taken, one at gunpoint

YOUNGSTOWN — Police are looking for multiple men in two separate robberies where vehicles were taken, one at gunpoint.

A 24-year-old Warren man told police he and a friend were robbed Wednesday while attempting to pick up a television set on the city’s West Side.

According to police, the two men drove from Warren to a home in the 2200 block of Oakwood Drive at 7 p.m. One of the men went inside the house and the other waited in the car.

After a short time, a large man came to the car and told the waiting friend he was needed inside to help with the television.

The man told police a gun was placed to his head and he was shoved to the floor as he tried to enter the house. The other man was already being held to the floor in only his underpants being guarded by two men.

Reports say both men were punched and kicked in the face and upper body. The thieves took money and cell phones from the men before threatening to shoot them if they moved off the floor.

When the men looked outside moments after the thieves had run out of the house, they noticed the Ford Explorer belonging to one of the men had been taken.

Police also received a call at about noon Wednesday concerning a 16-year-old city boy who had been carjacked on the city’s South Side.

The teen boy told police he was at a gas station in the 3200 block of Market Street preparing to pump gas into his mother’s red Pontiac Sunfire when a man asked him if he would like to buy a stereo. The boy agree to buy the stereo, and the two drove off together in the Pontiac.

The juvenile told police the man forced him out of the car in the area of Ravenwood Avenue and Erie Street, then took the car. The boy walked home and called police.

Police found the car a short time later in the city with the stereo missing.