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City police probe robberies
YOUNGSTOWN — Police are looking for multiple men in two robberies in which vehicles were taken.
A 24-year-old Warren man told police he and a friend were robbed Wednesday while attempting to pick up a television 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 victim 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 victim, in only his underpants, already was being held to the floor by two men.
Reports say both victims were punched and kicked in the face and upper body. The robbers took money and cell phones from the victims before threatening to shoot them if they moved off the floor.
When the victims looked outside moments after the robbers ran out of the house, they noticed the Ford Explorer belonging to one of the victims 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 boy 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.
goodwin@vindy.com