Crime & Safety

Women Try to Win Big in Ohio Lottery Scam: Best of the Blotter

Here are some of the weirdest police reports and incidents from departments across the region.

Here are this week's most bizarre police calls, reports and charges. All information was provided by police reports from departments in Patch communities. Where arrests or charges are mentioned, it does not indicate a conviction.

Lottery ticket scam stopped — Two women thought they could win big with their inside track to Ohio Lottery tickets. Now, they face felony theft charges following a seven-month investigation by the Ohio Lottery Commission.

Kirstin Frank, 23, of Middleburg Heights, is without paying for them while she worked at a Rite Aid in Westlake. Her friend, 22-year-old Holly Zinck of Brookpark is charged with complicity in the thefts.

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The women were released this week from Cuyahoga County Jail on $1,500 bonds.

Fighting in a visible spot — Location was not a concern for two brawling women on Nov. 26.

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The two exchanged punches and hair pulls in front of the Solon Police Station about 9 p.m. that night.

Police say the fight broke out because one of the women —  who has a child with man currently jailed in Solon —  was upset that the other visited him. Police arrested 22-year-old Ariel Gunn of Bedford Heights and 23-year-old Brittani M. Gillon of Euclid. Both women were charged with disorderly conduct.

Officers tried to verbally command the women to stop fighting, but ended up knocking them to the ground when they refused orders.

Funeral service purse snatcher nabbed — Akron Police have arrested a man accused of stealing purses from women as they grieved at area funeral homes.

Raymond Jarvis, 49, was arrested Tuesday night and charged with several counts of receiving stolen property and forgery, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. Police said his most recent theft took place Nov. 14 at Ciriello-Carr Funeral Home in Fairlawn.

In that incident, a woman said her purse was stolen while she grieved with family. The handbag contained $10, a cell phone and her debit card, the report stated.

Jarvis is accused of using the woman's card to make a $160 purchase at Circle K and a $60 purchase at Marathon gas station on West Market in Fairlawn.

Syringe story contains holes — An attempt to cover-up drug use earlier this month during a Brecksville traffic stop did not add up to police.

An officer initially stopped a North Royalton man for a cracked windshield at 2:15 p.m. The man said he was dropping a friend off at home after a shift at a Broadview Heights restaurant. However, the officer decided that the timing and traveling direction of the man's trip did not make sense. The officer saw that the men had prior drug charges and requested that they step out of the car.

He found a bag of syringes in the car, but the passenger claimed they would be used with insulin to treat his "type A" diabetes. That story did not fly because the correct terminology is type 1 or 2 diabetes.

Additionally, the passenger showed the officer information indicating that he got out at 12:30 p.m., or an hour and a half earlier than he initially said. The officer also found a receipt that showed the syringes had been purchased at 1:15 p.m. that day. The man's mother, who he lives, told police he does not have diabetes.

The man confessed that he recently resumed his heroin use. He was charged with possession of drug abuse instruments.


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