Boardman man charged in hoax over kidnapping

Staff report

BOARDMAN

A 44-year-old Youngstown man is facing an extortion charge after police say he was involved in a fake kidnapping and ransom.

Ronald Hellman Jr. was arrested Tuesday and appeared in Mahoning County Area Court here Thursday, when his bond was set at $8,000.

The case against him started May 15, when a man told police that at 7 p.m. that day he had received a phone call while working at a local restaurant.

The person on the phone said he had the man’s wife and threatened to kill her if demands weren’t met, according to reports.

Boardman police responded and tried to track the cellphone of the man’s wife. The caller, who police later identified as Hellman, contacted the victim again asking for money and told the man to take the ransom to East Palestine, police said.

At about the same time, police learned the victim’s wife’s phone was used in the area of South Heights Avenue in Youngstown and when they went to the area, they found the man’s wife unharmed, reports stated.

The woman first told police she had been kidnapped. But eventually she told police she went to Hellman’s residence to borrow money and let him use her cellphone, which is when he called her husband to demand money, police said. She has not been charged.

Hellman, who has been accused of drug possession, felonious assault and other offenses in the past, will be back in court Aug. 7.