Jefferson County Sheriff

Questions: A couple who took their pregnant daughter to an Empire area residence to get her dog and her belongings reported her ex-boyfriend threatened them if they didn’t leave and “was on (the) front porch with his shotgun when they left,” Monday. The mother said the couple has had a physically abusive relationship and when her daughter told him she was going to her mother’s to shower because they had no water, “he told her not to return.” The mother said he let her daughter inside the house to get her dog and pack a bag, but after she left, she “couldn’t help herself and … went into the house and proceeded to tell him (how disgusted) she was with the way he was treating her pregnant daughter.” She said her daughter’s ex-boyfriend told her to leave several times, but she didn’t, until he allegedly pulled a shotgun out and pointed it at her and told her to go. The mother wanted her daughter to pursue domestic violence charges and she herself wanted the ex-boyfriend charged for the shotgun, but deputies said her daughter told Empire Police Chief Cliff Utt she “said there was only minor violence that she described as “rough play.” Deputies said her ex admitted pulling out a shotgun but “but never pointed it at anyone” and said the situation was calm until the mother “stormed into the house.” He said he has no problem with his ex bringing someone with her to pack the rest of her belongings as long as it isn’t her mother.

Grab ‘n go: A man taking his grandmother’s outdated medicines to the Walgreens in Yorkville for disposal said a man he knows stole the bag it was in, Friday. Deputies said the suspect was located at a nearby apartment and reported “it was evident he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol,” with slurred speech and reeking of alcohol. The officer who found him said the only medication he had on him was his own, but the tenant living in the apartment where he’d been emerged with a bag of pills he said the suspect had walked in his home with a white trash bag “containing several empty pill bottles and a clear glass candy dish filled to the top with miscellaneous pills” and told deputies he didn’t want them in his home. The man who’d reported the theft said he didn’t care about the medications but was concerned his grandmother’s name was on the pill bottles. He asked deputies to make sure his grandmother’s “old blood pressure medication and probably some expired heart medications” were properly destroyed.

Walked in: A Hopedale resident was taken into custody after he allegedly tried to walk into a residence on township Road 113, Monday. Deputies said Matthew Yanok, no age listed, 123 Main St., Hopedale, was charged with burglary after a couple watching TV in their living room reported a vehicle pulling into their driveway and hearing footsteps on their porch before the man allegedly opened their sliding door, reached in and pushed the blinds aside. The wife said she screamed at the intruder to leave and then contacted their son, who lives next door. When her son arrived, he claimed Yanok was still “standing on the front porch, drinking a Mountain Dew and smoking a cigarette,” deputies said.

Can’t hold it: A man found at an abandoned property in Adena where he didn’t belong initially told deputies he was there to see his friend, then gave anotehr reason, Feb. 23. Deputies said he “kept staring off in the distance” and appeared to be “impaired by something (but they) did not believe it was alcohol.” Deputies said he “began to speak to someone, asking if he could park his truck at their home” but there was no one there.

Claiming innocence: A caller reported hearing “five or six” gun shots and seeing several people “having some kind of dispute in the street” on township Road 582, Tuesday. The caller called back to report a family member had spotted three people in the road “yelling at each other.” Deputies found two men who said they’d been trying to pull their truck into their yard when they heard “three to seven gun shots from a neighbor’s house.” The woman in that house denied firing a weapon and said she’d gone outside to get her phone out of the car when one of the men began to yell at her. She said she didn’t know what he was saying “due to the fact of (her) not being able to understand him” and denied hearing gunshots, insisting all she heard was the sound of the two men revving the truck’s engine “as they were attempting to get it unstuck.” She claimed she didn’t even own a gun and suggested they could search her house, though the presence of “several large and unfriendly dogs” suggested it might not be a good idea. Deputies did test the woman for gunshot residue.

Slight exaggeration: A woman said her pre-teen son told her a family member “hit him and threw him outside into the snow” at a Mingo Junction area location, Saturday. Deputies said the child told them the family member didn’t appreciate what he was saying about his father so the family member “grabbed him by the arms and caused him to hit his ear off a chair” and told him to go outside. The family member denied striking the boy, saying the child had announced he “wished his father … was dead and was wishing bad things on him” and then “started to swing at him with his phone in his hand” so he grabbed him by the arm and sat him down and told him to calm down, but the child said he was going to call his mother. A witness confirmed the child had been “talking bad” about his father and the family member sat him down. The witness said the family member never raised his hand to the boy.

Kicking up: Richmond residents complained their neighbor was “purposely spinning his tires to throw gravel toward her new car, causing damage, and to irritate her dogs,” Friday. The resident said his neighbor had been working on his truck throughout the day, revving his engine and spinning tires, causing gravel to kick up and hit their cars” and claimed it happens “all the time.” The neighbor said he and his friends had been working on the truck but never kicked up gravel at his neighbors’ cars and explained the caller and his wife “always find issues to complain about.” Deputies said the man agreed he’d be more careful working on his truck and leaving his property, but report when they told the caller he “was not satisfied because he feels he should be charged with something” but they stood firm, telling him no crime had been committed. Both men agreed to avoid contact.

Unwelcome: A Wintersville resident wanted her boyfriend removed from her residence, Saturday. She said he doesn’t live with her but “sometimes comes in and spends the night.” Deputies said he was “highly intoxicated and could be heard yelling in the background” and she said he’d refused to leave when she asked him to. They said he’d calmed down by the time they arrived, so she gave him a ride home.

Overdid it: A caller reported an intoxicated male refused to leave Mrs. T’s Tavern in Yorkville, Friday. Deputies took the man home and told him not to return to the club.

Unhappy: A Rayland woman complained she caught her son with her phone, and he’d erased her data, Saturday. She was upset when deputies told her that since he lived with her she would have to legally evict him, claiming “he was stealing, and she wants something done about it.” She was asked if she had proof and she told them it had been erased, then “got upset about the questions and said it was obviously a joke to call this department to have him removed” and hung up.

Taken to the cleaner: A Jefferson County woman said she shipped two boxes of Arctic Fox silver dollars separately to a man she knew as a collector in New York who said he would sell them for her for $42,000, Feb. 20. She said she’d purchased one box with 308 of the coins in 2014 for $15,649 and a second box that same year for more than $10,100. She said after she shipped the first box the man contacted her and offered to sell the second at the same time, so she sent in, but since then he hasn’t responded to attempts to contact him. Deputies tracked down his employer, who advised he hadn’t worked out and was terminated after three weeks for “showing up intoxicated.” They said they had no knowledge of the transaction.

Scammed: A Wintersville man said his wife was trying to sell some things on Facebook Marketplace when “an interested party” asked her to Zelle him money to verify her account to purchase the items he was buying, Saturday. She sent him $120, then he asked her to send another $130 that they also sent. They said the “interested party” sent them a digital check through Zelle with instructions to deposit it, then email them $500 and keep the rest for themselves but when they went to the bank to do it the bank stopped the transfer. They said the scammers blocked them on Facebook after that.

Impasse: A caller reported an adolescent female riding a dirt bike in the street in Bloomingdale, Monday. Deputies said it’s not the first time the child has done it and is happening more frequently, but when he talked with his neighbor the man said, “do it.” The neighbor said his grandkids do ride their minibikes to the end of the street but he’s “lived there many years and never had an issue” until his neighbor complained. Deputies told him he should try to keep his grandkids out of the main road and to be “cordial” if the neighbor confronts him again. He said the neighbor’s never been violent but he “wouldn’t necessarily stop teaching his grandkids how to ride dirt bikes.”

Vandalized: A resident living on township Road 213 said her mailbox had been damaged, Monday.

Outside voices: A Jewett resident reported hearing voices outside but didn’t see anyone, Monday. The resident claimed to recognize one of the voices, deputies said.

Handled: Wintersville residents thought someone was trying to get in their property, Sunday. They said they could see the door handle moving and didn’t see anyone, “but didn’t look outside to see if anyone was out there.”

Goosed: Deputies stopped a Pennsylvania woman at Friendship Park and suggested she and her friend “find something better to do than trying to hit geese,” Sunday.

Cited: Joseph Edward Paris Jr., 3030 Elm St., Weirton, expired registration; Robert Valle, 340 Bantam Ridge Road, Wintersville, driving under suspension.

Steubenville Police

On camera: An area resident said she was loading groceries into her vehicle when another vehicle parked next to her and the driver “opened his door and struck her vehicle,” Monday. She claimed the impact “shook her car” and the driver “denied hitting her car with his door” and argued with her, fleeing in his maroon Ford F-250 when she said she was calling the police. Police said the woman had a picture of the man and his truck, as well as the license plate and spoke with a witness who said he saw the man park next to her and hit her vehicle, then flea.

Cited: Ernest C. Geiger, 73, 611 Lincoln Blvd., Steubenville, no operator’s license; Elizabeth A. Call, 24, 917 Trenton St., Toronto, assured clear distance ahead.