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Police probe holiday weekend robberies
YOUNGSTOWN
The Christmas season traditionally is a time of giving, but Youngstown police are investigating those who spent the weekend forcefully taking from others.
Police are looking into four cases of robbery over the Christmas weekend.
A 53-year-old city man told police he was robbed Monday morning on the South Side by a group of male juveniles carrying a baseball bat, knife and gun.
The man said he was on Williamson Avenue when he was approached by the group of teenage boys asking for cigarettes. He said he refused but was then struck with a baseball bat, and he began fighting with one of the boys.
The man told police he continued to fight with the bat-wielding boy until one of the other boys pulled out a gun and another pulled out a knife. The group of armed thieves ran off with the man’s debit card and identification.
A 62-year-old Hubbard man told police he was attacked and robbed Saturday on the South Side.
The man told police he was walking up the driveway of a friend’s house in the 500 block of Ferndale Avenue at 5 p.m. when a man in a black sweat shirt driving a red car pulled up and asked him for food. The victim said he did not have any food and was tackled from behind and ordered to hand over his possessions.
The lone thief took the man’s wallet containing identification and credit cards.
A 17-year-old boy told police he was robbed of his cellphone at gunpoint Friday on the South Side.
The boy told police he was in the area of South and Dewey avenues about 7:15 p.m. when a black man wearing a black hooded sweat shirt, blue jeans and gold-rimmed glasses pointed a gun at him and snatched the cellphone he was carrying. The boy went home and called police with his mother.
A 54-year-old woman told police she was walking in the area of Meridian Road at 7:33 p.m. Friday headed to a store to shop for a disabled friend when she was shoved to the ground and robbed. She told police the thief took a $20 bill and a food-stamp card from her hand.
The woman said she did not get a good look at the man and could provide only a description of his dark-colored coat.