Couple may have stopped series of car break-ins

Staff report

VIENNA

A township man and his wife apparently stopped a man from continuing with a series of car break-ins early Friday on Pleasant Valley, Smith Stewart and Youngstown-Kingsville roads.

Police were called to the couple’s Youngstown-Kingsville Road (state Route 193) home at 1:56 a.m. after the couple discovered that a man was sitting inside one of their cars.

The woman alerted her husband and went outside, yelling to make the man leave. But instead of fleeing, the man walked in the woman’s direction, police said.

The husband fired a gun through a screen window at the suspect, who then fled.

Police don’t know whether the suspect was hit by the bullet. They found no blood in the area where he was, said Brian Darbey, township police chief.

There were no other car break-ins that night, said Darbey, who believes the same man was responsible for about 15 car break-ins on Pleasant Valley, Smith-Stewart and Youngstown-Kingsville roads that night.

In most cases, the thief only took change, but one $600 necklace and one global-positioning system was taken.

Police interviewed a suspect and searched his home but no arrests were made, Darbey said. The man was not a Vienna Township resident.

The couple described the suspect as a black male in his 20s wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers shirt, ball cap and baggy jeans.