Family Dollar Robbery Suspect Apprehended in Columbiana
The woman who allegedly robbed several Family Dollar stores in the area, including in Middlefield Village, last winter has been detained in Colum-biana County after…
The woman who allegedly robbed several Family Dollar stores in the area, including in Middlefield Village, last winter has been detained in Colum-biana County after being strangled by an irate store employee.
Middlefield Village Police Chief Joe Tucholski told village council May 7 the suspect — described by previous Family Dollar employees as female, about 5’5″, around 120 pounds with blond hair and a deep, slightly raspy voice — recently attempted another robbery in Columbiana County.
When she entered the Family Dollar store recently, the suspect reportedly tied one employee’s hands with plastic zip ties, then ordered the manager to take her to the vault. When the suspect turned to follow the manager, the employee, who was 18 or 19, broke her zip tie, grabbed the suspect from behind and put her in a chokehold, Tucholski said.
“She kept (the suspect) in a choke hold until she stopped moving,” he said last Thursday. “When the paramedics got there, (the suspect) had no pulse.”
Paramedics revived the suspect and transported her to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Youngstown, where she was placed under arrest, he said.
When detectives from Middlefield Village went to question the suspect, she asked for a lawyer, Tucholski said.
Because the robberies were carried out in several jurisdictions, including Kent, Orwell and Geauga County, the case has been turned over to the Ohio Bureau of Investigation, which may file joint charges, he said, adding it will be up to the BCI to release her name.
“She is under 24-hour watch and, as soon as she is released, she will go to the Columbiana County jail,” he said.
The Middlefield Family Dollar store was robbed the evening of Feb. 4, when a female brandishing a gun, tied up the employees with zip ties, robbed the store and fled. It was, at the time, the fourth or fifth Family Dollar store robbed in the same fashion by a similarly described suspect within about a 30-mile radius of the Harrington Square shopping center store, Tucholski said at the time. Last Thursday, he said there may be seven stores robbed in the same fashion.
At the Feb. 5 Middlefield Village Council meeting, Tucholski said the suspect took about $2,500 in cash, including about 30 pounds of coins, which is an “above felony”?amount.
Neither of the employees, who live in the area, were injured, they were just “shaken up and little bit disturbed,” Tucholski said.
