From the blotter / Niagara County police calls, Aug. 30 to Sept. 5
Aug. 30
• Four men were charged by Lockport police with felony gang assault following an alleged attack on an employee at the Diamond Bar on State Road. The employee told Lockport police the fight started when the employee asked the men for identification. Police said the worker was found unconscious at the scene and another man also was punched in the head. Juan B. Roman Jr., and his twin brother, Angel L., both 21, of Washington Street; Ruben A. Ruiz, 19, of Ruhlman Road; and Allen J. Tomaino, 21, of Hawley Street were all additionally charged with a second count of felony assault, as well as misdemeanor assault, police said.
• Someone entered a manager’s office at the Ponderosa Steakhouse on Niagara Falls Boulevard, Niagara Falls, stealing a purse belonging to the restaurant manager. The theft occurred between 6 a. m. and noon, city police said. The purse contained $50 and some credit cards, in addition to personal belongings.
• A resident of South Ridgeview Drive in Pendleton told sheriff’s deputies she had been contacted on Aug. 1 by creditors seeking information pertaining to a credit application. The woman told deputies that she had not made any application and that it was fraudulent. An investigation is continuing.
• Someone punctured an inflatable pool in the yard of a Royalton home on Telegraph Road sometime overnight, sheriff’s deputies said. Damage was estimated at $300. Deputies are probing the possible involvement of a neighbor.
• Daniel M. McCollum, 20, was charged with unlawfully dealing with fireworks at 6:30 p. m. after police went to his 24th Street apartment to investigate a report of shots fired, Niagara Falls police reported. Police searched the residence but found no rifle, as a witness had reported. Instead, they confiscated some illegal fireworks.
• A 19th Street woman told Niagara Falls police she went to a party on Niagara Street and found the next day that $950 had been taken from her wallet. She said 15 people were at the party and believes it may have been taken while she used the bathroom.
Aug. 31
• A 1990 Lincoln owned by a Ninth Street man burst into flames as he drove in the 1900 block of 18th Street shortly after 2 p. m., Niagara Falls police reported. Officials were uncertain as to the cause of the fire. No damage estimate was given and no injuries were reported.
• A Social Security check for $412 was stolen from a 15th Street, Niagara Falls, residence while the victim was hospitalized in Lockport, police reported. The check was forged and cashed, and the victim told police that his son may be involved in the incident.
• A purse was stolen from a car parked in front of a Jerauld Avenue residence overnight Aug. 28, Niagara Falls police reported. Lost was $100 in cash and personal effects.
• A man in the 4500 block of Main Street in Gasport told sheriff’s deputies that two teens were in his backyard at 11:30 p. m. The two boys, ages 17 and 18, told deputies they were looking for a cell phone clip they lost, but deputies said they had no flashlight and found the story hard to believe. Patrol walked into the woods and found a water cooler with two marijuana plants and asked the two teens about it. They admitted they brought the plants to the residence and were at the scene to check on them. Deputies confiscated the plants and forwarded the investigation to the Niagara County Drug Task Force.
Sept. 1
• A 52-year-old Cambria man told sheriff’s deputies that someone entered his barn in the 5300 block of Cambria Road and drove away his 1993 Yamaha YZ motorcycle sometime in the past two days. Value of the bike is $900. He said the motorcycle had two flat tires.
• A boater said he saw another boater driving recklessly on the Niagara River and alerted Niagara Falls police. Raymond A. Burling, 50, of Hyde Park Boulevard, was charged at 8:40 p. m. with driving while intoxicated and unsafe backing after attempting to back his Ford Bronco and boat trailer down a dock ramp on Buffalo Avenue, police said. Officers said Burling got out of his vehicle and fell down and told them he had three beers half an hour ago.
• Two pit bulls, valued at $900, were reported stolen in the 500 block of Eighth Street in Niagara Falls. The owner said three young boys about 10 years old were suspected. There was no sign of forced entry police said.
• A 54-year-old Gasport man told sheriff’s deputies that $1,850 worth of power tools were taken from his Bradley Road barn while he was on vacation in Iowa this past week. He said there was no sign of forced entry, but a door was found slightly ajar.
• A Lockport couple from Woodmore Court told sheriff’s deputies that someone entered a garage overnight and took a $1,200 laptop from their kitchen table and three power saws from their garage. A complaint of suspicious male was seen in the area that same evening trying to open car doors, but deputies were unable to locate the suspect, believed to be a juvenile.
Sept. 2
• Pablo Morales, 27, of Fifth Street, Niagara Falls, was charged by city police with resisting arrest after officers said they chased him from roof to roof and had to use a stun gun to serve a warrant. Morales, wanted on a warrant for burglary, criminal mischief and harassment, was found in his boxer shorts climbing up onto his roof to avoid arrest, according to reports. Police said they put up a perimeter and he jumped to neighboring roof. Police said he was Tasered twice and jumped back and forth several times before surrendering.
• Two teens were charged with stealing by Lockport police tonight and fleeing from a police on Aug. 31. The 16-year-old driver from Blackley Court and his 17-year-old passenger from LaGrange Street were both charged with unauthorized use of motor vehicle. The 16-year-old driver was additionally charged with resisting arrest, failure to signal, unlicensed driver and fleeing police. Police said on Aug. 31 that they saw the reportedly stolen vehicle leave in front of a known drug house on Genesee Street and then said the vehicle left the house with the wheels spinning. After a short pursuit the two teens jumped out and started running at Ashley Place and Locust Street, police said. Officers said they found a cell phone outside of the vehicle and later were able to find the identity of the driver and charged both teens.
Sept. 3
• A Lockport man told sheriff’s deputies that the weather stripping on the back door of his home in the 5700 block of Sweetwood Drive was chipped off and the door was found open. He said inside someone had taken $750 from an envelope on the coffee table and 15 movies sometime between 6:45 and 10:45 p. m.
• Alicia L. Dames, 25, of Elmwood Avenue, Lockport, was charged with driving while intoxicated and disobeying a stop sign, Lockport police reported. She was pulled over at 3:35 a. m. at South Transit and Walnut streets.
• A 27-year-old Packard Court woman told Niagara Falls police she came home and smelled bleach and found that someone had broken in and poured bleach over the clothes in her laundry room, as well as on the chairs and couch in the living room and on the bed and clothes on floor in the closet of her bedroom. She told police that she suspects an ex-boyfriend.
Sept. 4
• A Newfane man who works for a used car dealership on Ridge Road in Newfane told sheriff’s deputies that overnight someone broke the driver’s side window of his Ford Mustang, which was parked on the lot and removed the car stereo, speakers and amp. Total loss and damage was estimated at $1,200.
• Dale McCollum, 44, of Slayton Settlement Road, Gasport, said he was working on top of manure spreader at McCollum Farms on Seaman Road in the Town of Hartland when his left thumb became stuck in an air cylinder, just after 10:30 a. m. His thumb was caught in a piston, which retracted, and volunteers from the Hartland Volunteer Fire Department were able to help him release his thumb, said sheriff’s deputies. McCollum was treated in Erie County Medical Center, according to deputies.
Sept. 5
• An Elmwood Avenue woman told Niagara Falls police that someone entered her home via an open window sometime overnight, stealing 10 digital video discs valued at $200.
• The niece of a Niagara Street man is suspected of having stolen an envelope containing $562 in rent money from the victim’s home, Niagara Falls police said.
• A 15-year-old boy told Niagara Falls police he was attacked at 3:30 p. m. while walking home from his bus stop. The LaSalle resident said that another juvenile punched him in the back of the head, then in the nose, allegedly in retaliation for the victim calling him a derogatory name. Both are 10th-graders at Niagara Falls High School, police said.
• A Ridge Road, Town of Lockport man told sheriff’s deputies that someone smashed a window in his 1995 Cadillac, then entered his garage and rifled through a toolbox. Nothing appeared to be missing from the property, deputies said.
• Someone took a lawn chair from the porch of an 82nd Street home in Niagara Falls sometime between 8 a. m. and 10 p. m., using it to climb into the home through a kitchen window. Police said that a purse containing a pack of cigarettes, a lighter and about $200 in cash was stolen from the residence.
• Andrew H. Peters, 38, of Church Street, Youngstown, was charged by Niagara Falls police with driving while intoxicated at 11:45 p. m. Peters was stopped at 24th Street and Pine Avenue after a minor two-car accident. He was also charged with having no insurance, police reported.
