Crime & Safety

Taxi Driver Choked, Threatened at Gunpoint: Crime Roundup

This information is provided by the Howard County Police Department.

Columbia

Robbery

On March 1 at about 10:45 p.m. a taxi driver was dispatched to the Owen Brown Village Center where he picked up four male passengers. He was directed to pull over on the 6700 block of Sewells Orchard Drive, when one of the rear passengers began choking him with a belt and the front passenger pointed a handgun at him, threatening to kill him. The driver crashed into a tree. He then was able to flee.

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Residential burglary/attempted burglary

Someone kicked in a basement door to a home on the 6500 block of Carlinda Avenue on March 1 between 5:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. A television was reported stolen. 

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A resident on the 5400 block of Hesperus Drive noticed pry marks on an outside back door sometime between February 26 and March 2. No entry was made.

Ellicott City 

Robbery

According to police, a man was walking home from a pub where he worked at about 1:30 a.m. on March 2 when he accepted a ride home from two strangers. When they got to his home on the 3200 block of Normandy Woods Drive, they robbed him of his cash. They did not display any weapons.

Commercial burglary

Someone cut off the lock on a metal storage box on Burgess Mill Way belonging to Ben Lewis Inc. Plumbing sometime between Feb. 28 at 3:30 p.m. and 7:15 a.m. the next day. Power tools were reported stolen. 

Residential burglary

Someone smashed the glass in the back doors of a home on the 10300 block of John Eager Court on March 2 at about 7:10 p.m. Nothing was reported stolen, but the burglar was cut entering the home and left blood on the door and the floor.

Clarksville

Residential burglary

Someone forced open the garage door to a home on the 13500 block of Highland Road on March 1 at about 9:50 a.m. The residential alarm was activated and the burglar did not enter the home. Nothing was reported stolen. 

Fulton

Robbery

Four men, all believed to be in their 20s, were sitting in a vehicle at the intersection of Cherry Tree Drive and Oak Crest Lane on March 1 at about 8:20 p.m. When one of the men took a large amount of money out of his wallet, another punched him in the face and tried to take it from him. The victim was pulled out of the car and all three suspects assaulted him. The victim ran away, as did one of the other men, whose identity has not been confirmed. The other two drove off, and they were arrested by police a short time later.  A 21-year-old Ellicott City man  and a 22-year-old Cumberland man were charged with robbery, assault, theft and false imprisonment. 

Laurel

Attempted residential burglary

A resident returned home to the 9600 block of Covered Wagon Drive on March 1 at about 11:30 p.m. and saw a footprint on the front door and suspected someone had tried to kick in the door. No entry was made.

Commercial burglary 

Someone used an iron umbrella from a smoking deck to break a window at Fat Daddy’s, on the 9900 block of Washington Boulevard at about 4:50 a.m. An alarm was activated and no entry was made.

Jessup

Commercial burglary

Sometime between 10 p.m. on March 1 and 5:45 a.m. the next day, someone smashed the front window of Kay’s Diner, on the 8200 block of Preston Court. Cash was stolen from the register.

On March 4 at about 1:30 a.m., someone again used a rock to smash a front window at Kay’s. A tip jar was reported stolen. 


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