YOUNGSTOWN - Police say maintenance workers at a West Side apartment Thursday caught a man inside who had broken in - as they were repairing damage from a break-in earlier in the day.
Police were called to 2947 Oregon Ave. about 10:30 a.m. by maintenance workers who were holding three males for police. The workers said they were repairing a broken kitchen window from an attempted break-in earlier in the morning, when they spotted a person inside who was not supposed to be there.
The person, later identified as Kayan Ali Muhammad, 15, acted like he had just woke up, and when the workers asked him what he was doing inside, he said it was his mother's house, and he slipped out the back door.
Another man, Leonard Ellis, 18, then came to the front door and said it was his mother's house before they went across the street with a third person, 17-year-old Ali Muhammad.
Police went to an apartment across the street and brought out Ali Muhammad and Ellis, who were identified by the maintenance workers, reports state. One of them told police they had taken money and marijuana out of the apartment while they were inside as it was being worked on and hid it under a sink in another apartment. Officers found $372 in cash and 15 bags of marijuana.
They also told police one of them served as a lookout while Ellis distracted the workers so one of them could get inside.
The woman who lives in the apartment that was broken into said she left at 7:55 a.m. and locked the door. She was informed a short time later that someone had tried to break in.
No one got inside the apartment during the attempted break-in, reports state.