Woman says robber posed as charity worker

Staff report

WARREN

A 27-year-old Vernon Avenue Northwest woman says a man wearing a dark suit jacket and carrying a notebook who knocked on her door Tuesday afternoon seemed to be just what he said — a representative of a local charitable organization collecting used toys.

But after telling the man she didn’t have any toys to donate, the man asked her for a drink of water, and she left him on the porch while she went inside for it.

When she came back, he was inside the house, and he demanded money, she said.

When she said she didn’t have any, he hit her twice in the head with a handgun, took her cash and fled on foot, she told The Vindicator.

She suffered a severe laceration in the 2:21 p.m. incident, police said.

Officers responded to the neighborhood and fanned out looking for the man, who the woman described as bald, dark-skinned and in his 30s.

Taken during the robbery was $400 in cash, according to a Warren police report.

Jeff Cole, Warren police public-information officer and officer in charge, said the woman has been released from the hospital, but he doesn’t know what kind of object caused her injury.

He said police still are investigating whether a person posing as a charitable-organization representative committed the crime.