A 53-year-old blind man told police he was swindled by two taxi drivers Tuesday evening.
The man says he took a taxi from a bar on Summit Street to a bar on High Street around 7:30 p.m. and was charged $7.75, even though he says he has calculated the fare to be $5.60. The blind man compromised, paying $7, because he “didn’t want to get into a brawl in the parking lot,” according to the police report.
Then the man took another taxi back to the bar on Summit Street and was charged a fare of $6.30. The man wanted to give the driver $8, “because he seemed like a nice guy,” so he fanned out three $5 bills and three $1 bills and told the driver to take $8. Once inside the bar, the man realized that the driver took two $5 bills and two $1 bills, cheating him out of $4.
When police informed the owner of the taxi company of the theft, he said he would go to the blind man’s house and pay him $5 because he wants happy customers, even though he doesn’t think the drivers cheated the blind man.
Man assaulted while returning lost phone
A 53-year-old man was beaten at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 13 while returning a lost cell phone to its owner. The man found the phone near East Avenue and East Tomkins Street earlier that day. When he called the phone’s owner, a man answered and identified himself as “Tim,” and said he would give the man a reward for returning the phone. When the man went to the meeting location, a man got out of a black SUV, took the cell phone and punched the man three times in the face before fleeing in the car.
Gun-toting man threatens woman at carryout
A 19-year-old woman says she was at a carryout on the 1500 block of North Fourth Street on Friday afternoon when a man she knows pulled a gun on her, yelling at her for a past incident when she broke a car window. She ran home and called police, and says she has had trouble with this man in the past. Police filed a report for menacing, but the man was not arrested.
Intruder escapes with Xbox
A 21-year-old Ohio State student was walking down the stairs to the first floor of his Summit Street home when he saw a reflection of a man who was walking around downstairs. The student yelled at the man, who ran out the back door with the student’s backpack, flip flops and an Xbox 360. Police reported that the man entered by removing the screen from an open kitchen window and standing on a chair outside to get in.
Student assaulted by two men
A 19-year-old OSU student was walking near Summit Street and 12th Avenue at 11:41 a.m. Tuesday when two men came up from behind him, punched him in the back of the head and knocked him to the ground. The men took the student’s and ran northbound before police arrived.
