METRO DIGEST || Chief urges residents to clear hydrants

Keep hydrants clear

BOARDMAN

Fire Chief George Brown is asking residents to avoid covering up fire hydrants with snow so it is easier for firefighters to find them in an emergency. Residents also should clean snow away from the hydrants.

Cabdriver robbed

YOUNGSTOWN

A cabdriver said a man with a gun robbed him of $40 about 5 a.m. Thursday on the West Side.

The 30-year-old driver from Warren said in a police report he was called to a home in the 100 block of Wesley Avenue to pick up a fare. A young man got into the cab and asked to be driven to a store on Mahoning Avenue to buy cigarettes. When the fare went inside, however, he was denied a sale because he had no identification, reports said.

The fare then had the driver take him to Market Street, where he was able to buy a cigar, and drive him back to Wesley Avenue. When they arrived there, the fare pulled a gun and demanded the driver’s money, wallet and cellphone and ran out of the cab with the cash and phone. The driver then returned to the Mahoning Avenue store to report the robbery, reports said.

Burglary suspect

YOUNGSTOWN

Police arrested a Rome, Ohio, man on breaking-and-entering charges at about 8:10 p.m. Wednesday on the West Side after reports said his shoes matched prints in the snow at a Burbank Avenue home that had been broken into.

Officers spotted Michael Reese, 26, and another man walking down North Schenley Avenue and went to ask them what they were doing. Officers said it was strange someone would be walking in the street in cold, snowy weather. Both men ran, and police managed to catch Reese at a home in the 600 block of West Heights, but the other man got away.

Police checked to see if Reese had been involved in a string of recent burglaries in the area and noticed footprints into a vacant Burbank Avenue home. Reports said there were several copper pipes outside the home, and not only did Reese’s shoes match the footprints but his gloves had the same residue that covered the pipes.

Reese was taken to Mahoning County jail.

Boardman arson

BOARDMAN

Fire Chief George Brown said Thursday’s house fire on Yellow Creek Drive has been ruled arson. Loss is estimated at $65,000.

No one was injured in the morning blaze that is believed to have started in the basement of the foreclosed home. Flames went to the first floor and also damaged the roof of the home.

The Western Reserve Joint Fire District of Poland and Springfield Township Fire Department assisted Boardman firefighters.