WESTLAKE, Ohio โ
Police thwart scam
A convenience store owner called police detectives at 1:30 p.m. on April 4 to report concerns about an elderly man depositing large sums of money at a cryptocurrency ATM in the store. store.
The store owner said the man was receiving instructions from someone on his cell phone, and the store owner correctly assumed he was being scammed.
Officers arrived in time to stop the cryptocurrency transaction before it was completed and the funds passed to the perpetrators. The near-victim had received a pop-up message on her home computer indicating that her system had been compromised. The scammers scared the man by falsely claiming that criminals were using his PC to trade child pornography and that he would be implicated if he did not pay to have the machine cleaned.
The Westlake Police Department warns residents to beware of scammers who contact them via pop-up messages, emails, text messages or phone calls demanding payments in gift cards, cryptocurrency or bank cash withdrawals.
Felony Failure to Comply: I-90
A vehicle containing a driver and a passenger fled from police around 9 a.m. April 4 on I-90 after initially stopping.
Officers called off a brief chase for safety reasons. Less than an hour later, the passenger, who was dropped off in Cleveland, called the Westlake Police Department and reported the identity of the getaway driver. The driver was wanted on warrants from Strongsville and Trumbull County.
Officers attempted to arrest the suspect at work, but he missed work. The 30-year-old Olmsted Township man learned police were looking for him and turned himself in that same day.
He was charged with felony failure to comply and driving under suspension.
Arrested on Warrants: Columbia Road
At 4 a.m. on April 5, officers stopped a vehicle at Columbia Road and Detroit Road after learning that Cleveland Police were looking for the registered owner of the car for failing to appear for a previous traffic violation.
The 38-year-old Cleveland resident was arrested and turned over to Cleveland officers.
The passenger, a 39-year-old Cleveland woman, was also wanted on warrants from Parma and North Olmsted for failure to appear for traffic violations. She was arrested and turned over to North Olmsted police.
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