Beacon Journal staff writer
Robbers broke into three Akron businesses this weekend and rammed stolen construction equipment into the front of a business to steal a safe near the site of a recent fatal plane crash.
According to Akron police, unknown perpetrators broke into the garage at Osborne Stone on Darrow Road in the Ellet area and stole two pieces of construction equipment and a cutting torch. One of the pieces of equipment was flipped onto the adjacent Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway tracks and the other was driven on the tracks about 300 yards, doing extensive damage, according to the police report.
A call to police was placed at 8:15 a.m. Saturday, so police say the crimes likely occurred Friday night or early Saturday morning.
The construction equipment was then used to remove the front of the J. Bowers Construction Co. building on Mogadore Road, where a safe was removed from the building and placed in a vehicle. That vehicle was stolen from Gary’s Car Kare, also on Mogadore Road.
Police said the vehicle was recovered on Gilchrist Road. The safe had been cut open.
Police are investigating the incidents.
The break-ins and damage are not far from the site of a recent fatal plane crash. After the crash, J. Bowers Construction’s surveillance video, which captured the crash, was turned over to authorities. The video, only seconds long, shows the plane in the far-left corner of the screen crashing into an apartment building and then a plume of smoke. All nine passengers — a pilot, co-pilot and executives from a Florida real-estate company — were killed on Nov. 10 when the plane crashed into the four-unit building on Mogadore Road.
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty