Store owner thwarts would-be ring thief

staff report

WARREN — Tom Crowley, owner of Gene’s Jewelers on North Park Avenue, thought it might be “interesting” when a man stumbled into his store about 5:30 p.m. Monday, appearing to be intoxicated.

Crowley watched the man closely as he sat down to ask a salesperson to show him a ring.

The clerk handed him one costing around $1,000, and the man quickly got up with the ring and ran toward the front door nearby, with the sales person yelling, “Hey, hey, hey.”

Crowley went to work, chasing the man out the front door.

“I ran out the door and threw him up against the car,” Crowley said of a vehicle a short distance up Park Avenue.

“He struggled, trying to get [away]. Then he gave up. I had him pinned. He wasn’t going anywhere,” Crowley said.

The man gave Crowley back the ring and asked if Crowley could just let him go.

Crowley declined, holding the man there until Warren police arrived a little while later and arrested the man, whose identity was not immediately available from the police department.