METRO DIGEST

Police probe theft

YOUNGSTOWN — Police are looking for the people responsible for ripping the copper piping out of a house while the family was sleeping.

A 38-year-old East Avondale woman told police someone entered her home at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday and went into her basement and began ripping out pipes. The woman said the sounds of pipes banging and large amounts of running water awakened her and her son.

The woman told police she did not see those responsible for the theft but did see a car pull out of the driveway of an abandoned house next door.

The woman told police the house is a duplex, and the upstairs tenant recently moved out.

Robbery at gunpoint

BOARDMAN — A Wingate Road man told police that his father’s flat-screen television was taken from his home at gunpoint.

The 28-year-old man who called police said two men came to his home about 1:20 p.m. Wednesday. One of the men demanded $400 that the victim owes for drugs, a police report said.

The victim said he didn’t have the money, and one of the men said, “Then I want the TV,” according to the report. The victim told the man the television belonged to his father, and the man took out a handgun and said he wasn’t leaving with nothing. The men took the television.

Rescued from fire

GIRARD — Firefighters rescued three people from a house fire at 72 E. Main St. The call came in at 5:58 a.m. Thursday from employees at the Girard Post Office, the fire department said.

When firefighters got to the house, a duplex with tenants upstairs and the owner downstairs, the residents all were still asleep. Fire was shooting through the roof, the department said.

Firefighters managed to get everyone out safely. Two adults were rescued from the upstairs apartment and one from downstairs.

The fire department said several cats also were rescued. A damage estimate was not available.

Fire and rescue crews closed the road Thursday morning, so nearby St. Rose School canceled classes for the day, the department said.

Father charged with child endangering

BOARDMAN — A Niles man is charged with misdemeanor endangering children, accused of leaving his 23-month-old daughter in a car while he shopped at a grocery store.

Police were called about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday to Cochran Sparkle, South Avenue, on a report of an infant left alone in a car. The engine wasn’t running.

James Shaffer, 38, of Salt Springs Road, the father of the child, told police that his daughter was asleep and he didn’t want to wake her, so he left her in the vehicle and went into the store.

Two witnesses told police that Shaffer was inside the store for at least 20 minutes. The outside temperature was 38 degrees.

Free dinner for needy

YOUNGSTOWN — A free dinner for the needy will be Sunday at Nevels Temple Church, 939 Elm St. (across from Wick Park) from 1 p.m. until the food runs out. The menu includes chicken, turkey, ham, hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, string beans, desserts, punch and soda.