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Rash of Trumbull break-ins puts residents on high alert
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Todd Hanks stands outside his South Leavitt Road home near the spot where he discovered items from his garage and another home Sept. 25. He suspects that thieves left the items on the edge of the driveway so they could pick them up later. His was one of many break-ins in Trumbull County in recent weeks..
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Todd Hanks was backing his car out of the driveway of his semirural Warren Township home at 5:15 a.m. Sept. 25 when he ran over something.
It was the metal box holding his reciprocating saw, and next to it were his chainsaw, Weed Whacker, a gas-powered four-wheeler, plus a Weed Whacker that didn’t belong to him.
He looked at his attached garage and realized someone had broken in through the main door.
He assumes the thieves put the stolen goods along the edge of the driveway in a dark place so they could return later to retrieve them, and he interrupted their plan by coming out at an early hour.
Warren Township police have charged four people from Portage County with participating in the wave of eight break-ins that hit the township Sept. 22-25, said Lt. Don Bishop.
Police and homeowners in Vienna, Brookfield and Hubbard townships to the east haven’t been as fortunate, with each township having six to 18 break-ins each in the last couple of weeks but no arrests.
Tammy Hanks, Todd’s wife, says the rash of break-ins caused some folks to get concerned enough to form a block-watch group for their neighborhood on the south side of the township.
“They even had discussions of every night having someone sit in the front yard with a gun,” Tammy said. “I thought, ‘Wow! They’re getting serious.’”
Others took to their Facebook pages on the Internet to exchange the latest information, Tammy said, adding, “Right now, it’s just stuff, but you never know what a person might do if they’re cornered.”
The Hanks family relocated the German shepherd to the garage.
Break-ins have been a recurring problem throughout Trumbull County in recent months, investigators say. The thieves usually target sheds or garages and the type of lawn equipment and tools that are generally kept there.
Areas in the western and northern part of the county patrolled by the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Department have had their share of crimes, but officers also have made several arrests, said Maj. Tom Stewart of the sheriff’s office.
“Most of the guys we’ve got have charges against them,” Stewart said.
Bishop says arresting four suspects hasn’t stopped the problem. “You put one crew in jail, and then there’s another crew,” he said.
Meanwhile, the sheriff’s office has tried to help the areas of the county that have their own police departments, but it’s been tough to catch the thieves in the act and difficult to figure out where they are unloading the stolen goods, Stewart said.
Another challenge is that most victims don’t know the serial number for the items they keep in the shed or garage, making identification of stolen goods difficult, Stewart noted.
On the same day the Hanks’ home was burglarized, another South Leavitt Road man reported that his $1,200 motorcycle was taken from a shed.
Other reports were filed on Kale-Adams Road on Sept. 24 and Layer Road on Sept. 25 involving a stolen $500 rototiller and $900 snowblower. Most of the break-ins occurred in the most rural parts of the township, Bishop noted.
Some of the thieves prowling Warren Township were using a female to drive their vehicle to reduce suspicion, Bishop said.
The township experienced a similar rash of break-ins during the summer, which prompted a group of northern Warren Township residents to start a block watch, Bishop said.
Block-watch members have tried to help police by providing a list of vehicles that belong at various locations to help officers detect the presence of a suspicious vehicle, Bishop said.
Bishop and other investigators say the most important message he gives to residents is to pay attention to suspicious vehicles and noises and report them.
Vienna Township Police Chief Brian Darbey said the 15 break-ins that have been reported in Vienna during the two weeks at the end of September and start of October — all of them involving sheds or garages — are the most he’s seen during his 18 years in the department.
Darbey is assigning extra patrol officers to the mostly rural township and hoping people will call to report suspicious activity.
“All I tell people is, if they see something in the middle of the night, they have to call. The sooner we can get there, the better. I’d rather they be safe than sorry.”
Fowler Township had its rash of break-ins about six weeks ago — seven break-ins in three weeks, said Michael Currington, the township’s police chief and also a Warren police detective.
The Trumbull County 911 center, which takes police calls for most of the rural townships in Trumbull County, as well as Howland Township and Cortland city, reports that break-ins are up over five weeks ending Oct. 7.
The center took 72 breaking-and-entering calls from Sept. 1 through Oct. 7 and only 40 during that same time period in 2009.
Brookfield Township Police Chief Dan Faustino said his department investigated 18 break-ins in seven days ending Oct. 7 on the west side of the township. In the nine months before that, the average was eight break-ins per month, with August being the highest month at 21.
In two cases, officers were close to catching the thieves. About 4:30 a.m. Oct. 2, an officer turned around to check out a suspicious vehicle, but by the time he found it, the people inside were gone. The vehicle had been stolen from Weathersfield Township, Faustino said.
Mike Begeot, detective in Hubbard Township, which had about six break-ins during the two weeks ending Oct. 7, said police from Brookfield, Vienna and Hubbard townships, along with the village of Lordstown and the sheriff’s office, met Oct. 8 to map out strategies.