Police Round-Up: Most Popular Crime Stories of the Week

Michael J. Agresta, 40, of Highland Heights, was arrested in Bath over the weekend after allegedly conning several area gas stations out of hundreds of dollars.

According to Bath Township Police Chief Michael McNeely, Agresta would pull up to gas stations in a snowplow truck, show fake invoices to clerks and demand payment for work he never completed.

When Agresta attempted the scam at a True North Shell station on Sunday evening, the attendant grew suspicious and alerted Bath poilce. 

Agresta was charged with attempted theft, a second-degree misdemeanor, and was handed over to Solon police, which had issued a warrant for his arrest on Jan. 30.

The warrant stemmed from a Jan. 27 incident allegedly involving Agresta and a True North Shell station employee in Solon. According to Solon police, Agresta badgered the employee until he was paid $80.

Agresta is being held in Solon Jail, and will be sent back to Bath once Solon's courts are done prosecuting him on theft charges. 

Agresta also has outstanding warrants in Lakewood on attempted theft and theft charges. Snowplow scams have been reported in Lakewood, but it’s not yet clear whether Agresta was connected to them.

A Wild Ride for Coke Dealer

A coke dealer confirmed Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh’s suspicions when he admitted to being, well, a coke dealer midway through his trial on Feb. 5.

Lejon Fair, 31, of Cleveland, pleaded guilty to trafficking in cocaine, a first-degree felony; tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony; and failure to comply, a first-degree misdemeanor, according to April Wiesner, chief spokeswoman of the Summit County Prosecutor's Office. 

The charges stem from a Sept. 2011 incident where Akron police interrupted a coke deal in the Montrose On Tap parking lot

Fair fled in his Audi, taking Interstate 77 Northbound toward Cleveland. As he made the turn onto the Wheatley Road exit, Fair lost control of his car and flew air-born into a Bath resident’s backyard, said Wiesner.

He was found hiding under a small bridge, clutching $47,000 in cash with bones protruding from his foot.

Judge Lynne Callahan will sentence Fair on Feb. 13 in the Summit County Court of Common Pleas.

Games Don't Prove to Be Much Fun

On Jan. 26, the security guard at Target watched a 48-year-old Akron woman puruse the Electronics Department before making her way to the video games, according to a Fairlawn policereport.

The woman pulled 23 different games off the shelf and began stuffing them in her handbag, the report stated. 

The woman headed toward the exit and began to walk out when she was stopped by security. She had $454 of games in her bag.

Police charged the woman with theft and she was banned from Target for one year.