Amherst News-Times, 2000-06-21

              Long-time cop retires — P<
Amherst News-Time
■
71
'^dnesday, June 21, 2000
Amherst, Ohio
Teens use stolen radios to taunt poli
by KATHLEEN WILLBOND
News-Times editor
Six juveniles, ages 14 to
16, were arrested Saturday
night, after threatening, and
taunting police for hours using the radio frequency that
normally is used by Amherst
and Vermilion police.
The juveniles were caught
with the help of a private resident, Todd Dunlap, who
helped police locale where the
teenagers were hiding. Dunlap
is an amateur radio enthusiast,
and helped police locate the
teenagers in a private home
in the Jackson Street area.
One of the juveniles, a
15-year-old, is employed by
the city summer job program
and was working at the
wastewater treatment plant. He
stole three radios from the
plant, according to police.
At about 8:30 pjn. on Saturday, police said they began
to hear "unauthorized" transmissions on the police
channel.
The statements made on the
radio included the subjects
speaking to the Amherst officers on duty by their last
names, calling the officers
"pigs", swearing and threatening officers. At times, they
said they had cops "in their
scope" indicating they were
threatening to shoot police.
They also taunted the dispatchers on duty.
The subjects were warned
several times to stop, but
continued to taunt police until
about 2 a.m. on Sunday.
Vermilion police, who were
dealing with crowds associated with the annual Fish
Festival activities, were forced
to change to an alternate police frequency.
Amherst sergeant Dan Mak-
ruski admits the taunting
made duty difficult for the
police.
"It's tough, because we
look at our radio as our link
' to each other and our dispatchers," he said Monday.
"It was scary, they were
messing with our means of
comrnunication...in a worst
case scenario, someone could
have been injured and we
wouldn't be able to get help."
Makrusi said the police listening in suspected the perpetrators were juveniles, and
he thought he recognized one
of the voices.
Using information provided
by Dunlap, who first heard
the taunting statements over a
police scanner, the police
were able to locate the house
where they thought the transmissions were being
generated.
Makruskl said they watched
the house for hours, then deciding to investigate further.
He said police knew a
juvenile lived at the residence,
with his grandmother, and had
a history of being in trouble.
Police knocked on the door
and got the teen's grandmother out of bed, he said,
who gave them permission to
search the house.
It was 4:30 am.
If the grandmother had refused a search, police said
they would have gotten a
judge out of bed to request a .
search warrant be issued.
Six male juveniles were located in the basement of the
house, Makruski said. Two
radios, one with the police
frequency, were located as
well.
One of the junveniles admitted stealing three radios
from the wastewater treatment
plant The third radio was later located at his home.
Five of the juveniles were
charged with being delinquent
by reason of theft, disrupting
public services, telecommunications harassment, possession
of marijuana and possession
of drug paraphernalia.
One was charged with possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia
only because he did not
transmit any messages over
the radio.
s
d
e
u
Resident Todd Dunlap, who helped police   interviewed by a television news reporter on
catch six juveniles who were taunting and  Monday,
threatening police over the radio frequency, is
At times, Makruski said the
youths admitted over the radio that they were smoking
pot, and questioned police
why they were not arresting
them.
Five of the teens were being held at the detention
center.
Makruski is using a compu
ter at the police station along
with tapes of the messages to
determine how many times
the teenagers transmitted over
the police frequency.
Donation/sale of land could add city parking
The city is taking another look at
creating more parking downtown,
although a decision is probably at
least two weeks away.
Milad Abraham has offered to
sell and donate all of his parcels of
land in the downtown district to the
city. The offer includes five contiguous lots totaling about 1.S acres
between Park and Tenney streets,
with two of the lots with frontage on
Church Street
Mayor John Higgins said the
property could be used as a parking
lot with room for up to about 90
cars. He said Abraham had offered
the parcels to the city in 1997, but
Abraham and the city could not
agree on a sales price.
Sales price could again be a sticking point, according to Higgins. He
said the city is waiting for the results of a second appraisal on the
property.
A first appraisal showed a value
significantly lower than the
$595,000 appraisal Abraham presented with his offer of $549,93?.
According to the offer. Abraham
would donate two of the parcels, totaling $264,498, and sell the remaining three parcels to the city at a cost
of $285,439.
"We can only go 10 percent over
the appraised value," Higgins said.
Higgins said the second city appraisal would be completed in about
10 days.
Even if the city could reach an
agreement with Abraham on the
sales price, there would be other obstacles to converting the property to
a parking lot Because two of the
parcels were the former locations of
a gas station and an auto body shop,
the property would be subject to environmental testing before the transaction could be approved.
And the city would have other
costs associated with demolishing
existing structures, paving, lighting,
and landscaping, among others.
Higgins said he could not say what
those costs might be at this time.
'First we'd have to hire an ar
chitect to design what it would be,"
Higgins said. "After that we would
have a better idea of what it would
take."
In 1997, the News-Times reported Higgins projected the costs at
about $59,000. He estimated with
the increased cost of oil used in
asphalt the total would be closer to
about $70,000 today.
Bike cop
catches
D'Mart
robbers
A police patrolman who
was on his first day of bike
patrol made a pretty good
catch: a robber who was trying to escape on foot
Patrolman Jacob Perez, a
member of the Amherst Police Department for about a
year, was riding through the
area of town near Dairy Mart,
when he saw a subject running from the area of the
store.
About 9 p.m. on Saturday,
Perez stopped the man to talk
to him because he was "acting suspicious" as he ran
from the area of the store.
Perez had not yet received
a radio transmission report of
the attempted robbery of
Dairy Mart, r which a male,
wearing a buck bag over his
head, enterui the store and
brandished what appeared to
be a chrome-fuiished handgun.
He ordered the Dairy Mart
clerk lo give him Ihe money
from the cash register. The
clerk refushed, to the man
look $6 from a customer that
was standing at the cash register md then fled on foot
But as Perez talked lo the
man he Hopped, he received
a transmission about die rob-
: bery, along with a description
of the man involve!
CONTINUED on page 3
Young driver racing toward his dreams
by VICKIE HAUFF
Newt-Times correspondent
While most teenage boys spend
their weekends working long hours
to fix up their first car, Dave Shul-
lick Jr. of Amherst is spending
weekends racing his.
Raised on the racing circuit,
18-year-old DJ, as he is known, around the track, is in his second year
of racing Super Modified can. His
father Dave Shullick Sr. has been in
the business for nearly 30 years,
winning numerous races around
Ohio tracks.
When his son showed an interest
at the tender age of five years, Shullick Sr. put him in a quarter-midget
car.
Now with 13 years of track experience on his side, DJ is winning
all over the map and breaking track
records regularly.
"We go anywhere from Lorain
County Speedway to Pennsylvania,
Michigan and Canada," Dave said.
They are part of the Super Modified
Series.
Driving for Kovacs Racing Team,
DJ was named 1999 Rookie of the
Year at Sandusky Speedway, at
well at with the Twinstaie Auto
Racing Club, a club that coven Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
I_iownatthe"WmgedW_Tiori"
among race enthusiasts, Super Modified Cart run at speeds mat can
range from 110-180 miles per hoar,
ind hold a 900 hone power engine
pushing a mere 1350 pound, alcohol powered vehicle.
"That's the exact required weight
to keep ia conjunction with die
rules," Dave said.
At Mansfield Motonpartt Speedway DJ hat broken Mt own speed
record of 13.77 seconds with a dme
Dava ShuHck Jr. of Amherst ia better known as DJ ontheracing   Circuit,
circuit. Ha Is one of the youngest drivers on the Super Modified
at 13.63 seconds already this year,   out putting our real
He hat Mao beaten Ma dad't record   car." Dave raid.
oo our   put* he is my best Mead.'
At 18, DJ it one of the
driving
a tetter car," Dave
"Bat this way he is gaining exponV
i- ——i ——u u__c— __ <__ ■ rscuro    c_r,   l~to sua. • — *"• -~ — "—- — — #■ ■ •■■■      ■——-
of 13.79 seconds from  1999 at       Dave has put his own career on   driven oo the Super Modified Or-   met and driving a high quality
Mansfield. the bock burner temporarily to sup-   cuk if not the youngest and he plans   for a lop team
Mansfield. the bock burner temporarily to sup- cu
On occa_k*,f___r orison gets port Ms son, but Mill races whenever to
dunce lo challenge each other oo he pete a chance and enjoys racing
ihe track. Wiih Dove's oar doming *__« DJ. d
the none "The Shoe'' m he it Akhough DJ hat many in the rac- fl
known around the lack, DJ't cor, log field that he looks up to he says
#38. boasts The Shoe 2" ia tribute Ms Sopor Modified Racing hero fc-rional «
to bis father. would hew to be Ms foker "for Ms being paid.
"We're Mod of oajawikfaat aa- oaaorieod^wkdoreandlmowkdpb. "He ood
"I plan to go p.ofcoannat mom ores before every race ot part of a
day." he states. Tktt woald be my ■*** te*»- Wkh mm high gseds.
AltmgfcDJhaanwnyintherac-   first choice M cween." _re» tefca a lot of heat s_d aew Mass
ifieU-ottolooksuptoheaays      Akbough DJ it drivk* wfcfc pso- »» »» fl"*** to «-* *•* *•*
he knot oaM-
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