Trending
WARREN -- When a man entered a dollar store on Youngstown Road with a scared woman, made threatening remarks to a store employee, exposed his buttocks to her, insinuated that he had stolen a car and refused to leave, two customers took matters into their own hands and "escorted" the man outside.
Warren police were notified at 2:18 p.m. Friday that the man had left the store in a red four-door vehicle and found a vehicle of that type at Youngstown and Ridge Roads and caught up to it close to North Road.
Officers had to drive fast to catch up because the red vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed, according to a Warren police report.
The car's license plate was one character different from one officers were told to look for. The car was reported stolen, and the driver, Hakim J. Caldwell, 58, of Adelaide Avenue SE, was arrested. One charge against Caldwell at that time was reckless operation of the vehicle, the report states. The stolen vehicle was returned to its owner.
Authorities tried to arraign Caldwell on several charges related to the incident Monday in Warren Municipal Court, but Caldwell refused to appear for his video arraignment at the Trumbull County jail. The hearing was reset for Tuesday.
His charges are felony receiving stolen property and felony menacing, as well as misdemeanor menacing, public indecency and reckless operation. If he is convicted of the felonies, he could get several years in prison. He has a lengthy record of criminal cases in the Warren area.
In speaking with the store manager, officers learned that one of them saw Caldwell enter the store following a pregnant woman. The employee tried to quietly follow Caldwell, but Caldwell turned and made a threatening remark while telling the employee not to follow him, saying he was a "Navy Seal" and saying something similar to he "wrecked this car I took."
He yelled at the pregnant woman, and the pregnant woman asked the employee for a place to hide. When the employee was at the cash registers, Caldwell went behind the registers, which he was told he was not allowed to do, the report states. Caldwell responded by telling the employee not to talk to him like that and said he would "blow up the Trumbull Homes," an apartment complex in the area, the report states.
The employee said Caldwell exposed his buttocks to her while he was behind the register after she told him to leave the store, the report states. "Caldwell was escorted out of the store by two customers," the report adds.
As he was being removed, he "made a threat to blow up the store," the report states. The customers took items out of Caldwell's pockets "that he took," the report states.