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Two Fort Wayne men were charged Sunday in connection with a robbery at a near north-side coin-operated laundry earlier in the day, police said.
Torrie Essex, 30, of Fort Wayne, faces a preliminary charge of armed robbery. He was being held in lieu of $10,000 bail. The man who police said drove his getaway vehicle, Keston Beachem, 29, of Fort Wayne, faces preliminary charges of aiding in robbery and habitual traffic offender. He was being held in lieu of $12,500 bail.
Police say Essex entered the Sunshine Laundry at 1806 Lake Ave. just after 3 p.m. Sunday, walked up the counter, pulled a handgun and demanded cash. Essex fled with an undisclosed amount of cash, and witnesses gave a vehicle description to police, said officer Liza Thomas, a police spokeswoman.
That vehicle, a maroon Buick, was stopped by police in the 3000 block of Pennsylvania Street about 15 minutes later. Inside the Buick, police said they found the two men along with a large amount of cash.
Fort Wayne police investigated an armed robbery at a south-side video rental store Sunday morning.
The robbery was reported just after 9:30 a.m. Sunday at Blockbuster Video at 100 E. Pettit Ave., said officer Liza Thomas, a police spokeswoman. A store employee was leaving to make a bank deposit when a man sitting on a bench outside the store approached the employee with a handgun, she said.
The man demanded money and fled west on Lennox Avenue on a bicycle with an undisclosed amount of cash. The robber was described as a young man in his late teens to early 20s, black, about 5-foot-8 and wearing an orange hooded sweatshirt.
A late-night explosion that shook Beta Steel Corp.’s northern Indiana hot-strip rolling mill injured eight workers, six of whom required medical care.
Portage Fire Chief Bill Lundy said Sunday that two of the six workers hospitalized after Saturday night’s blast suffered the worst injuries. He did not know the conditions of the workers but said none of them had life-threatening injuries.
Their injuries ranged from burns to back injuries. Two of the workers declined medical treatment.
Officials said an explosion shook an electric arc furnace at the mill about 10:20 p.m. Saturday, blowing out the side of the furnace.
Beta Steel makes hot-rolled coil for steel service
