Another dollar store in Youngstown is robbed

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Yet another dollar store in the city was robbed by armed men.

This time it was the Family Dollar store at 3345 Mahoning Ave. Police said two men, wearing all black, went into the store at 10:12 p.m. Tuesday and forced a 21-year-old female clerk at gunpoint to empty the cash registers and a safe.

Numerous armed robberies of dollar stores have occurred in Youngstown in the past few months. Most of the robberies were done by two men, though a few were the work of three.

Police suspect several of the robberies are related.

Before this, two men robbed Dollar General at 2023 Market St. on Nov. 4.

On Oct. 31, Dollar General at 1504 Oak St. and Family Dollar at 2708 Glenwood Ave. were both robbed by two men.

That same Dollar General was also robbed Oct. 28 by two men at gunpoint and an armed man tried to get inside earlier in the month at closing time but the doors were already locked.

The Family Dollar store at 2224 Market St. was robbed Oct. 13 and Oct. 16 by three armed men, and the store was broken into three times after hours by men captured on security cameras stealing items off shelves and putting them in backpacks.

It was discovered Nov. 4 that someone broke in again, this time by tearing away a piece of plywood covering a broken window from one of the previous break-ins.

There also were break-ins at that store July 23 and Sept. 12 and Sept. 17. In all of them, reports said someone broke a window with a piece of concrete, got inside, took items and ran out.

On Oct. 10, someone pistol-whipped a clerk during an armed robbery at the McGuffey Road Dollar General. In that robbery, three men were inside, and at least one of them was armed. That was also the only incident of violence at any of the robberies.