Bingo bandits rob owner, 4 female players

3/13/2002

Lake Township police were searching the East Broadway area yesterday for clues in the Monday robbery of five people who were bound with duct tape and robbed at gunpoint after a bingo game.

Two men confronted Ronald Woodruff, owner of Glass City Boardwalk, 27820 East Broadway, with a sawed-off shotgun and a semiautomatic handgun while he was taking out the trash at 10:24 p.m., township police chief Danny LaDuke said. They forced Mr. Woodruff, 39, of Walbridge, back inside. The man with the handgun saw four women in the parking lot leaving a bingo game. The gunman went outside and “rounded them up at gunpoint,” the chief said. The victims' hands were individually bound in front of them. The men went through purses and took an undisclosed amount of money from the business. “This is very blatant and unusual,” the chief said. “I'm just glad that nobody got hurt”

After the robbers fled the scene, the victims freed themselves and called the police. One woman, Patricia St. Johns, 60, of Northwood, was treated at Bay Park Community Hospital.

Police identified the other victims as Alice Nuckols, 67, of Walbridge; Patricia Knierim, 58, of Northwood, and Sharon Deer, 51, of Perrysburg.

“What happened was bad,” Mr. Woodruff said yesterday. “What happened last night will pretty much affect the bingo crowd.”