YPD seeks to question teen arrested in Boardman store break-in

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

City police are interested in speaking to a teen who was apprehended by Boardman officers early Tuesday in connection with a break-in at a Dollar General store on East Midlothian Boulevard in Boardman.

Chief Robin Lees said detectives will try to speak to Stacee Harris, 16, of Youngstown, who is in the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center on charges from Boardman police of breaking and entering, vandalism, receiving stolen property and possession of criminal tools.

Harris was one of three people who were seen breaking into the store about 1 a.m. Tuesday. Officers could not find the other two suspects.

The 2024 Market St. Family Dollar has been broken into four times since Oct. 14 and seven times overall this year. Reports said three men have been breaking a window with a piece of concrete, then going inside with backpacks and taking as much as they can.

Lees said Harris was one of three people who were recently in a vacant house police were called to on the South Side.

Inside the house were items that could have been taken from a store in Boardman.

Police are also investigating a series of armed robberies at Family Dollar and Dollar General stores in the city that are unrelated to the break-ins.

Lees said police are making progress on the cases.

A spokeswoman for Dollar General on Tuesday responded with a statement when asked about security measures at the stores in the wake of the robberies in Youngstown: “As a local business and community stakeholder, we continue to work collaboratively with local law enforcement to reduce crime in our stores and the neighborhoods where we do business.

“The safety of our employees and customers is a top priority, and we employ a number of safety and security procedures to prevent, deter and, if necessary, respond to criminal activity in our stores. To protect the integrity of these measures, we do not comment on them specifically.”