This week in crime

When it spills, it looks like blood.

With the scrap price of copper hovering around $3 a pound, local break-in artists have been busy and Niagara Falls police are putting pedal to the metal trying to solve all the cases.

It’s a sad state of affairs when the most valuable thing to be found in many, if not most, Niagara Falls homes is copper pipe and wiring. But it’s my understanding that Mayor Paul Dyster’s Underground Railroad Interpretive Center and Cooking School is about to solve the financial woes of the city and by the time he leaves office, those houses will be full of gold and diamonds for the burglars to steal.

Police are investigating a burglary in the 1600 block of Cleveland Avenue. A 57-year-old man told officers someone broke into his vacant apartment building by unknown means. The victim said a quantity of copper pipe and the entire baseboard heating system was stripped from the building.

Officers are also looking into a theft from a church in the 8400 block of Buffalo Ave. A priest told the cops that someone stole two copper downspouts off the church school building.

And police are poking around a reported burglary in the 600 block of Niagara St. There, a 54-year-old man told officers that someone broke into his vacant apartment building by kicking in a rear door. The victim said a quantity of copper pipe was taken.

The scrap copper stolen from Niagara Falls gets put onto big container ships headed for China where it is used to wire the circuits of television sets, DVD players, iPhones, laptop computers and other items stolen here.
A single small piece of copper thus has the opportunity to be stolen not just once but an infinite number of times in this place we call the Honeymoon Capital of the World.

***

File it in the “I hate Mondays” folder.

Niagara County Sheriff's deputies, Lewiston Police and the United States Border Patrol currycombed the countryside last week looking for a Hewitt Parkway man who stabbed himself during a domestic and ran from home.

Police were called to the 5200 block of Hewitt Parkway about 10:45 Monday night to help locate the 61-year-old man with K-9 units. County officials also sought help from Erie County Sheriff’s Dept. helicopters.

A deputy was searching a neighboring yard about 45 minutes after being called to the address when he heard movement under a large pine tree — the man police were searching for jumped out from under the tree and ran toward the deputy while giving the middle finger with both hands, yelling, “F...you! Shoot me! Shoot me!”

The deputy said he was holding a flashlight in one hand and a cell phone in the other, so he used a straight-leg kick to the man's stomach to force him back. The man went down and became upset. The deputy said he drew his Taser gun and when the man charged again, the deputy fired the Taser into the man. The deputy said the effects were minimal at best as the man started to turn away and run from the deputy.

The deputy managed to grab the man and take him to the ground and put him in custody.

The man was taken to Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center for medical and psychological treatment.

Now, the Niagara County Sheriff’s deputies are among the best in the business, and I’m normally not one to second guess the split-second decisions that any of our brave men and women in blue are forced to make, but I think I’d have shot the SOB.
He was asking for it, after all.

***

Gunfire erupted during an attempted robbery at a store in the 1100 block of 19th St. just after 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, and the floor ran red with tomato sauce.

A store clerk at Falls City Market told police that a 5-foot, 7-inch man, wearing an oversized gray hoodie, blue jeans, gloves, a mask and white sneakers walked into his store waving a silver handgun. The suspect pointed a gun at one employee, who fled, then jumped onto a counter and tried to open the cash register.

Police said when the robber failed to get it to open, he pointed the gun at the store manager, who immediately got on the floor to avoid being shot.

The manager said when he tried to cross the aisle to get into a room in the back of the store, the suspect fired one round from a handgun which struck four cans of tomato sauce. The robber then fled on foot down Ashland.