Police probe robbery and thefts

YOUNGSTOWN

Police are investigating an early morning robbery at a city nursing home, and thefts from of a South Side church.

Police were sent to Dandridge Nursing Home, on Maranatha Drive on the East Side, early Monday after a health care worker there said she had been robbed of her purse, and a kit used in the collection of blood samples.

The 53-year-old North Side woman told officers she was leaving the facility at about 2:45 a.m. when approached in the parking lot by a seemingly clean cut black man. The man pulled a dark-colored handgun and ordered the woman to hand over any valuables.

The woman told police she handed the man the medical kit and showed him her purse that had been sitting inside her car. The thief took the purse and medical supply kit.

Police found the opened kit sitting a short distance from the nursing home. The woman’s purse, missing a wallet that had been inside, was also found near the nursing home.

Employees told officers the robbery appears to have been committed by someone familiar with the narcotics delivery schedule at the nursing home.

Police are also investigating a Sunday breaking and entering at the Hillman Street Church of Christ on West Avondale. Church members told police they arrived at the church Sunday morning to find the back door to the facility kicked in.

Police searched the inside of the church and discovered a water meter, copper piping, three floor fans and light fixtures missing. A more detailed inventory of the church property is expected to be taken.