2 charged with stripping vacant Youngstown house

YOUNGSTOWN — Police arrested two men about 2:30 p.m. Saturday after they found siding from a vacant house and tools used to break into homes inside a van they were driving.

Reports said Rodney Phillips, 46, and Stephen Phillips, 35, were each charged with unauthorized removal and possession of criminal tools, and Stephen Phillips faces an additional count of breaking and entering.

Police stopped a van Stephen Phillips was driving in the 100 block of East Avondale Avenue after receiving a call about men stripping an abandoned house, reports said.

Police checked that home and found the doors forced open and part of the siding gone. Reports said Stephen Phillips also admitted to taking siding off two houses on the block.

Inside the van, police found a sledgehammer, pry bar and crow bar. Both men were taken to the Mahoning County jail.