Fairlawn Police Blotter

• Fairlawn Police were called to Summit Mall Macy's March 29 by store security officer. Monica Gerace said someone had passed two counterfeit 50 dollar bills at the store. Police are reviewing security camera footage and have taken the bills as evidence.
•  A 72-year-old Akron man was the apparent victim of an email employment scam. According to a police report, Paul R. Williams, 72, said he cashed two checks for $985.05 at the Fairlawn branch of . He then wired $1695 to a man in Baltimore, keeping $275.10 as his fee. Williams told police he was acting on instructions contained in an Internet job offer from a company called Mystery Shopper.

Williams said he cashed the money orders and wired the money around March 18. 

The bank notified police when the money orders were discovered to be fake.

• Three men were arrested March 31 by officers from Fairlawn, Bath and Copley Police Departments after a foot chase on Wheatley Road.  According to a police report,  Jose Antonio Ferrer Diaz, 34, of Columbus, and New Jersey men Jochi Vargas Espinal, 23 and Jose Luis Valega, 20, both of New Jersey, were each charged with felony theft and possession of criminal tools.  

The manager of the Summit Mall Hollister Co. store called to report that three men  had entered the store, stuffed three large bags with store merchandise and left without paying.

A call that same day to Bath Police reporting a theft at TJ Maxx matched the description of the men accused in the Summit Mall incident. This time the men were seen leaving the store parking lot in a gray van headed west on State Route 18.

Officers from all three departments responded and spotted the van headed north on Interstate 77. Bath Police stopped the van on Wheatley Road near I-77 and the men fled on foot, but were apprehended without incident. Merchandise valued at $3,702 from Hollister and $1,200 from TJ Maxx was returned to the respective stores. Police said the van, which the men were driving with Florida temporary plates, had been reported stolen from Little Ferry NJ.