Shell on Midlothian (Again)...

[our2cents]

Idiots.     

[yfdgricker]

Cops haul candy from accident
Story by JOE GORMAN Tribune Chronicle on 12/13/2006.
Tribune Chronicle photos by Joe Gorman

Youngstown police and firefighters look over a car Tuesday that crashed on Rush Boulevard after police spotted it leaving a South Side gas station they thought was being robbed. Instead, police say someone in the car shoplifted several boxes of candy. Police officers say they broke off the chase before the crash.

YOUNGSTOWN — A car police thought was involved in a robbery on the South Side crashed after a chase Tuesday, and officers hauled away boxes of stolen candy from the vehicle.

Police backed off their chase of the car about 1 p.m. before it crashed into a telephone pole in the 1100 block of Rush Boulevard near the intersection of Boston Avenue.

Three people in the car were taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center including the driver, who shoved an injured woman out of his way before crawling over the dashboard onto the hood and trying to run from Detective Sgt. Rick Spottleson, who was working a plainclothes detail nearby.

Spottleson tackled the driver, 35-year-old Robert Matthews Jr. of 95 Shadyside Road, Austintown, in the driveway of a vacant house. He was being treated in the emergency room of St. Elizabeth late Tuesday night, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

Also taken to the hospital was 35-year-old Roberta Saltsman of 55 Woodrow Ave., Youngstown, and 40-year-old George Thomas of 187 W. Warren Ave. Charges are pending against all three, police said.

Saltsman was listed in critical condition in the surgical intensive care unit Tuesday night, the spokeswoman said, and Thomas was being treated in the emergency room.

An officer on patrol saw a woman run out of a Shell Station on East Midlothian Boulevard and yell ''go, go, go'' and jump into the car. The officer turned on his lights and began chasing the car, asking dispatch to contact the gas station and see what happened there, said Detective Sgt. Rob Deichman.

As other officers joined in the chase, the car raced toward Market Street before turning around and heading back towards South Avenue. As police were searching for it, they were informed that there was no robbery at the gas station but instead some candy was stolen in a shoplifting incident.

''We had no way of knowing if it was a shoplifting and not a robbery,'' Spottleson said.

Police lost the car near Erie Street, but picked it up at a distance near Rush Boulevard. Deichman said officers were not chasing the car when it crashed but did have it in sight.

Spottleson was working near Cardinal Mooney High School, which had an early dismissal and was heading in the opposite direction on Rush Boulevard to clear traffic. He said he saw the car was going more than 80 mph. The car skidded and then rammed into the pole.

Matthews shoved a woman in the passenger's seat out his way to get out, but the door was blocked by a telephone pole. He jumped out the windshield and ran a short distance before Spottleson caught him.

''He said he was on crack,'' Spottleson said with bits of mud and grass on his suit. ''It could've been a lot worse. He could've took any one of us out.''

Charles and Catherine Green were sitting on the front steps of their duplex on the corner and watching police and firefighters sift through the wreckage. They did not see the accident but they heard sirens before the crash happened.

''All we heard was a big crash,'' Catherine Green said. ''We heard the sirens before but we couldn't figure out where it was coming from until it hit the pole.''

jgorman@tribune-chronicle.com

[yfdgricker]

Wild Chase
Youngstown
Story from the WYTV Channel 33 Web Site on 12/13/2006.

Three people are in the hospital tonight, after crashing their car during a wild police chase on the southside of Youngstown.

Police say the pursuit started after two men and a woman allegedly stole several cases of pop from the Shell convenience store on South Avenue.

It ended with the car wrapped around a pole near Rush and Boston.

But it could have been much worse.

Detective Rick Spotleson says, "Mooney just let out at 12:00. There were a lot of cars, I was on Rush Blvd. As I was coming up I heard he was on Rush. I turned on my lights to get the other vehicles over. He could have took any one of us out."

The wreck left two of the suspects pinned in the getaway car.

One of them stuck underneath the dashboard.

Firefighters managed to cut them out of the vehicle.

None of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening.

[yfdgricker]

Shell Robbery
Story from the WKBN TV27 Web Site on 12/13/2006.

It was a furious and dangerous, high- speed chase through a Youngstown neighborhood. When it ended, three suspects went to the hospital, and will soon be facing criminal charges. What you won't believe is the incredibly idiotic thing that set them off in the first place.

This is a story with a mixture of stupidity and lousy timing. Around one p-m, a woman allegedly robbed this place and got away in a car with two men. Right about that time, a Youngstown policeman drove in for a cup of coffee and a store clerk came running out saying he'd been robbed. Naturally, the officer roared off after the getaway car that was speeding down Midlothian Boulevard. The chase ended just a few minutes later.

A scene of pain and destruction. Police, firefighters, paramedics, undercover agents and a fleet of emergency vehicles jammed the intersection of Rush and Boston. All because of a seemingly desperate trio trying to make a getaway.

The Oldsmobile they were driving, was racing through a residential neighborhood at alarming speed. Eventually the driver hit a telephone pole and crashed the vehicle.

The driver, Robert Matthews of Austintown, then pushed his way over his passenger, Roberta Salts of Youngstown, and scrambled out the rear window.

Was it drugs, or cash or some other valuable that stoked his desire to get away? No, he, Salts and George Thomas allegedly were running with a few cases of stolen pop and candy.

Again, all three in the getaway car were taken to the hospital. Police have not yet charged them with anything, but that's coming. Police also found packages of men's underwear in the car. They believe they may have been stolen from a local drugstore over the weekend.

Regardless, if they knew they were only dealing with a shoplifting and not an armed robbery, police would not have chased those people.