By JESSICA SIEFF
Niles Daily Star

One man was arrested after a Niles resident woke to the sound of her car alarm early Wednesday morning.
The Niles City Police Department responded to a complaint of a vehicle breaking and entering shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday at the Arbor Trails apartment complex on Fifth Street in Niles.
Upon arrival, a female resident informed police that she had been wakened to the sound of her car’s alarm.

The resident went to check on the car and watched as two men ran from the vehicle and the driver’s side door left open.

Police then found shoe prints in the snow near the driver’s side door of the victim’s car, which they were able to follow away from the car toward building across from the scene.

The shoe prints led police to two male teens, who were questioned in the incident.
Following police questioning and additional information from the victim, police arrested one of the. He was held at the Law Enforcement Complex with no bond.

Police are searching for one suspect in an apparent case of home invasion that took place Tuesday in the 500 block of Hickory in Niles.

Police were called to a residence on a complaint of forced entry burglary Tuesday afternoon. There, the female resident of the home told officers that she had arrived home at approximately 3:30 p.m. to find her 40-inch flat-screen television, DVD player, 7-inch portable DVD player and Nintendo Wii game console with several games missing from her home.

Police investigated the scene to find shoe prints in the snow that led from the back door and deck through the back yard and over a chain linked fence into the back yard of the victim’s neighbor’s home up to the back door, where they then ended.

The victim explained to police she’d been having trouble with her grandson as well as with her neighbors.

Police believe that the suspect, a teenage resident of the victim’s home, had apparently kicked in the exterior door on the southeast side of the home, leading to a mud room off the kitchen, which the suspect then entered continuing into the living room and upstairs of the home.

Police report the suspect exited the home through a door on the southeast side, which led to the back porch and backyard.

Speaking to the primary resident of the neighboring home, police were told she observed an unidentified man walk from the scene to the backyard of her home carrying a flat-screen television. The man said he had gotten the television as a Christmas gift and needed to sell it. The resident refused and the suspect then left, getting into a black vehicle of unknown make and model with two females.

Police were unable to make any arrests in the case.