Police probing car break-ins

Staff report

struthers

City police were still counting Friday the number of car break-ins that occurred overnight from Thursday.

There are 16 that they know of so far. But there could be more reports as people got to their driveways and realized what happened, said Detective Jeff Pantall.

The break-ins occurred in the section of the city near Midlothian Boulevard. The area is bounded by Midlothian on the north and Sexton Street on the south, he said.

Pantall said police believe the car burglaries are related to a rash of break-ins across the city border in the Brownlee Woods section of Youngstown. Those break-ins occurred a week to two weeks ago, he said.

He also said there may be a connection to similar break-ins that happened on Youngstown’s West Side, also within recent weeks.

He said police have “viable suspects.”

In reports available Friday, burglars got into cars by breaking passenger windows. Those reports were from Maplewood Avenue, Sixth Street, Eighth Street and Ninth Street.

“Whoever’s doing it is stealthy,” Pantall said. The burglars always take the same items, such as GPS systems, money and cell phones, he said. He said that on Maplewood Avenue, someone is missing an expensive physics textbook. He said that anyone who finds it should turn it in to the police.

Pantall said police believe the burglars are “young adults,” though no one reported seeing anyone suspicious Thursday night.

He said that people need to pull their cars as close to their houses as they can and could even leave on an outside light.

“Lacking a garage, that’s about all you can do,” he said.