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Police are looking for man who robbed Midwest Money Center
By JOSH stipanovich
boardman
An arrest has yet to be made in the Monday morning robbery of $20,000 from Midwest Money Center on Market Street.
Police have obtained surveillance video and were processing it and the crime scene Tuesday, Detective Sgt. Glen Riddle said.
Riddle said it could take a week to three months for DNA results to come back, if that’s the route police must take to identify the man who walked into the small-loan lender just before 9 a.m. Monday — demanding “all the money” he could get from the teller.
Riddle said he is positive police will find him and hope — after examining all of the video — they are able to get a positive identity.
A 19- to 20-year-old black male entered the business and pushed the teller into the safe after she opened its doors Monday morning. He demanded all the money in the safe, according to a report.
The teller told police she gave the man $20,000, and he put the money in a red hooded sweat shirt. She was then pushed into the restroom by the man. She was forced back into the restroom by the man after trying to escape.
She wasn’t able to escape until she heard a customer calling her name, the teller told police.
The customer told police she called for the teller after she heard a ruckus in the back of the money center.
She added that she knew something was wrong when she noticed the door to the safe was opened because it was never open during normal business hours.
The customer, according to a report, observed the man leaving the back room upon exiting the money center. The man was headed north on foot, she told police.
A man working at Pondscape on Market Street told police he saw a man just before 9 a.m. walking in front of Pondscape. He said the suspect asked him for the time, and just after 9 a.m., he saw him heading north then east on Homestead, off Market Street. Police set up a perimeter and used a Youngstown Police Department dog, but they were unable to track the man.
Riddle added police believe the man was armed at the time of the robbery, but they’re not entirely certain.