Mingo Junction Police

Charged: Jamie Smith, 39, 4122 Washington St., Weirton, failure to control, Thursday.

Suspended: Kevin Burrus, 48, 2610 1/2 Commercial St., stop sign violation, Tuesday. Burrus told police his Tennessee driver’s license was suspended and his vehicle brakes went out as he was traveling down McLister, preventing him from stopping. Police issued a citation for the stop sign violation, and a court date was set for April 8 for a pending driving under suspension charge.

Steubenville police

Easy mark: A Johnson Road resident in need of money said a friend showed her an ad promising to provide grant money to applicants, but it ended up being a scam, Thursday. She said she needed the money, so she began communicating with someone on Facebook using the screen name John Quimby who convinced her to buy a $500 Apple gift card, promising to send her $70,000 in cash through FedEx as well as a car. She advised all conversations were through Facebook Messenger and said sometimes the individual’s messages “were in poor English.” After she relayed the card information the individual told her “three IRS agents had stopped the truck” and were “demanding $250 to release the package,” but she’d started to feel uneasy about it and refused to send any more money even through her original contact as well as someone he called his “financial aid assistance” person continued to pester her. She was advised to block all contact with the fraudsters and file a cybercrime report with the FBI.

Swindled: A Sherman Avenue resident said she paid someone $1,800 for a 2004 Ford Expedition that was advertised on Facebook Marketplace and the next day the engine seized up and she was told it needed a new engine, Thursday. She said she tried to contact the woman she’d been dealing with, but the woman blocked her, as did the man whose name was on the title. She said he was one of two men who had delivered the vehicle to her but was not the one she gave the money to.

Dangerous: A motorist whose car struck a guardrail at the bottom of the Lovers Lane connector told police she lost her brakes, Thursday. Police said the driver said when she realized her brakes weren’t working, she tried to make a left onto the U.S. Route 22 west ramp, but she lost control and hit the guardrail.

Impaired: A Market Street resident told police his mother wanted to drive and he thought she was too impaired, Thursday. He said she’d left the house before noon Wednesday and when he got there he found her in the car with the engine running, so he took the keys before she could go anywhere. When they spoke with her, officers said she told them she was OK and needed to take kittens to the humane society, but noticed she was speaking slowly and her eyes were glossy and she was answering them in “run-on sentences and (sharing) irrelevant information.” Police said after they explained why her family was concerned with her driving she agreed to go with one of them.

Pilfered: Mid-town Speedway employees reported seeing a male wearing New York Yankees garb and a gold necklace “take an unknown amount of clothing (and) pop from the coolers,” then leave without paying for any of it, Thursday.

Damaged: Someone vandalized two properties in the 400 block of South Sixth Street, Thursday. Police said a resident found yellow paint on the rear wall and back porch of her apartment, and they spotted more of the same on the apartment next door.

Cited: Owen Stanley Provost, 18, 193 Highland Park, Bloomingdale, stop sign violation.

Served: John Robinson IV, 35, Market Street, Steubenville, bench warrant, Thursday.

Jefferson County sheriff

Booked: Ronnie A. Washington, 34, Cleveland, warrant for parole violation and aggravated burglary, Friday.

Identity theft: A businessman told deputies someone took out a COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan from the Small Business Administration in his name, Wednesday. He said SBA is aware it’s a case of identity fraud but requires him to file a police report. He said he’d opened a past-due notice from SBA in February showing the account was nearly $4,500 in arrears but was unaware of the loan, had no idea how much was owed in total and that he never signed the application and had not approved the loan.

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