Grove City police charged two people with felony counts of armed robbery June 6 after a Columbus man reported the pair robbed him at a motel in the 1900 block of Stringtown Road.
The victim told police he went to the motel at 3:30 a.m. June 6 after meeting a Grove City woman online and arranging to visit her in her room, according to reports.
He said she told him she needed money for car repairs and so he brought $240 in $20 bills, marijuana in a jar and a six-pack of beer.
The man said he entered the woman's room and sat on her bed, at which time a man came out of the bathroom. The victim said the Columbus man pulled out a gun, pointed it at him and demanded he stand up and give him his money, reports stated.
The victim said he handed over his money and the marijuana, then was told to leave by the suspects. He told police the suspects then left the motel in an SUV, heading toward Stringtown Road from Marlane Drive, according to reports.
Officers stopped the SUV on Stringtown Road. According to reports, the woman told police the gun was in her purse and officers recovered a loaded revolver. The man and the woman each possessed six $20 bills. Police also found a jar containing marijuana that matched the description given by the victim, reports stated.
The two suspects were taken to the Franklin County jail.
In other recent Grove City police reports:
* Officers were dispatched June 2 to a store in the 1900 block of Stringtown Road on a report of two women using fake identification to purchase phones.
The caller said the women had left the store without the phones but had kept the identification, a driver's license. He said they got into a white Jeep with Missouri tags and were last seen pulling into the lot of another store.
Officers arrived at the parking lot and observed the car was unoccupied, reports stated.
An employee of the first store told police the women had used an Ohio driver's license issued to a Hilliard resident to try to buy two phones valued at $2,400. The store clerk realized the license was fake and would not allow the purchase to be completed, according to reports.
Officers continued observing the Jeep and watched as two women left the second store and entered the vehicle, before stopping them. One of the women told police she was in town to visit her boyfriend, but she could not give his full name. She said the vehicle was a rental and that she and and the other woman were supposed to fly back to California the next day.
The second woman admitted they had used the fraudulent driver's license to purchase phones and that the phony identification was in their vehicle.
Officers searched the vehicle and found seven new cellphones, still in their boxes, along with five other phones and driver's licenses, identification cards and credit cards belonging to the Hilliard woman and three other people, reports stated.
Several gift cards were found in the vehicle as were receipts from numerous transactions of phones and other items.
The two women were arrested and charged with felony counts of identity fraud, according to reports.
* A Columbus man was arrested and charged June 3 with receiving stolen property after an officer discovered the van he had been driving was stolen.
An officer was on patrol at 7:50 p.m. at a motel in the 1900 block of Stringtown Road when his license-plate reader indicated a van in the parking lot was stolen. He was able to confirm the van had been reported stolen to Columbus police.
The motel clerk told police a man and woman arrived in the van and checked into a room at 6:37 p.m., reports state. She furnished the man's driver's license information and police discovered he was wanted on several active warrants from Columbus police.
Officers approached the couple's room and knocked several times, but got no response. An officer attempted to call the room twice from the lobby, but there was no answer, according to reports.
Police observed a woman matching the description given by the clerk leave the room and walk toward a nearby business.
They stopped the woman, who told them she and the man had taken a taxi to the motel. She said the man was still in the room and had been watching through the peep hole when officers knocked on the door, according to reports.
Officers returned to the room and knocked several more times, but still received no answer.
The clerk brought the pass key and when police tried to use it, the door would not open. An officer took hold of the pass key which was still in the door handle and used his right shoulder to try to force the door open, reports stated. As he did, the door frame was ripped off and the man was pinned behind the open door. Officers grabbed the man and he was handcuffed and advised he was under arrest. He was charged with a felony count of receiving stolen property and a misdemeanor count of criminal trespass, according to reports.
The man was later treated by Jackson Township paramedics for a slash wound to his stomach he said he had suffered earlier that day, reports stated. Before he was placed in the Franklin County jail, he received further treatment at Grant Medical Center.
No charges were filed against the woman who was accompanying the man, according to reports.
* A Grove City man reported June 5 that his trailer, valued at $1,500, was stolen from a private parking lot on Elm Street near Park Street.
The man said he purchased the trailer several years ago and kept it parked on the property he owns on Elm. He said he had last seen his trailer on May 1 before he went out of town, reports stated. He came back on June 5 to find the trailer missing.