“Police couldn’t catch up with the stolen truck, and officers lost sight of them near Ohio 4 and Market Street in Germantown,” Middletown police said.
Lt. Walter Scott Reeve said a teletype communication was sent to neighboring police agencies, including north of Dayton, east of Lebanon and Cincinnati, alerting them of the theft.
Just minutes earlier on Wednesday, Middletown police responded around 10:30 p.m. to University Drive Thru, 609 N. University Blvd., on reports of an armed robbery. A man entered the drive-through and after briefly speaking with the attendant, stuck a gun in the man’s side, took an unknown amount of cash and fled north on University in a car, police said.
Robert E. Klapper, 47, of Middletown was arrested without incident in a home on Columbia Avenue after police were tipped off to his location. Reeve said the weapon found at the time of the arrest was a lighter shaped like a gun.
Reeve said Klapper will also be charged in a misdemeanor theft incident Tuesday at Sherwin-Williams Paints on Clark Street.
“He asked for change and then grabbed the money and ran,” Reeve said, of the $80 stolen from the paint store.
Klapper is charged with felony robbery and will be arraigned today, Nov. 11 in Middletown Municipal Court. The man has prior grand theft and robbery charges, according to court records.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2179 or Hannah.Poturalski@coxinc.com.
About the Author