ELYRIA — A 12-year-old McKinley School student is facing Juvenile Court charges of carrying a concealed weapon after he took a knife to school yesterday, according to a police report.

Police were contacted a little before 10 a.m. after a teacher heard that he had shown the knife to other students.

Police recovered a 3-inch Winchester brand knife.

The student told police he had not told anyone about the knife and had kept it in a folder. He said he brought it to school because he was going to use it to take stickers off his bike.

He admitted, however, that he hid it in some bushes outside the school when he found out other students had told on him.

After being charged, the student was released to his mother.

PITTSFIELD TWP. — A fire caused by a lightning strike overnight has completely destroyed a massive, nearly 200-year-old barn and left two Pittsfield Township families with losses easily in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Rachel Park, 24, whose family owns the barn, on Webster Road just east of state Route 58, said lightning struck about 3:15 a.m. and by 4:30 a.m. the entire barn was engulfed in flames. Firefighters remain on the scene now, more than seven hours later.

“The barn literally exploded,” she said. “It went up like a huge mushroom cloud.”

More photos below.

Despite the massive loss, Park called her family “very lucky.”

What they described as the fast and efficient response of at least 10 fire departments and what firefighters described to them as “favorable wind conditions” spared their family home.

They’re also grateful for a passer-by who stopped by and banged on the door to wake up the family. Unfortunately, they didn’t catch his name.

“He stayed around for a while and tried to help us,” Park said. “But we were just in such a panic we didn’t think to ask.”

The barn had contained three vehicles, “tons of farm equipment,” a mower, a four-wheeler, two grills, a motorcycle, tools, and hay, feed and farm equipment belonging to the Breyley family, who run Bedebe Farms down the road and rent storage space. The only animals in the barn were “cats, birds and bats,” according to Park. She said all the cats managed to escape and had been accounted for.

The loss is more sentiment than anything, according to Mary Waite, Park’s grandmother, who owns the barn.

The barn, which was built in the 1830s had been bought by Park’s great-grandfather in the 1930s. Park’s 4-year-old son, Dylan, who was running around the scene in his fireman’s outfit, would have been the fifth generation to own the barn, the family remarked.

As the fire burned there were quite a few moments Park described as “nerve-wracking.” There were multiple explosions, she said. The smaller ones were vehicle tires blowing, and the larger ones were multiple propane tanks, gas cans and gas tanks in all the vehicles and mowers.

Insurance will cover much but not all of her family’s losses, according to Park, but she said the Breyley family will be in a tight spot having lost all their hay, animal feed and equipment.

“If any local farmers are able to help them out, I’m sure they could use the help,” she said.

Firefighters from at least 10 departments battled the fire. Park and her family listed Carlisle Township, Rochester Township, Wellington, Oberlin, Spencer, Camden Township, New London, Litchfield, Grafton and Wakeman.

Contact Rona Proudfoot at 329-7124 or rproudfoot@chroniclet.com.

Two Elyria men were arrested after one allegedly attempted to pass bad prescriptions and another led police on a foot chase yesterday.

Seljan

Burnside

Robert Seljan, 48, of Elyria, was arrested for attempting to pass a prescription under a dead person’s name, according to Elyria police. He was charged with two counts of deception to obtain dangerous drugs and trafficking in Schedule II drugs.

Brett Burnside, 28, of Elyria, was arrested for contempt of court, obstructing official business and other outstanding warrants.

Officers were called by the Walgreens on Cleveland Street in Elyria about 5 p.m. yesterday by the county drug task force, according to a police report.

A male, later determined to be Seljan, was attempting to pass a prescription for Oxycontin at the drive-through, according to police. Walgreens contacted police and stated they would recontact when the man returned to pick up the prescription.

They called back at 5:20 p.m. to report the man had returned and was waiting in his vehicle at the drive-through window.

As officers pulled behind the vehicle, a teal-colored hatchback, a passenger, later identified as Burnside, opened a passenger-side door and fled on foot.

Officers, along with a police dog chased him and apprehended him near Cleveland Street and Beverly Court. Seljan, who was driving the vehicle, was also taken into custody.

Officers searched the vehicle and found a prescription filled less than an hour earlier at Drug Mart in Elyria for 120 Xanax pills along with a bottle of Excedrin Migraine pills. Officers also found doctor’s paperwork advising Seljan how to take his medications as well as two unfilled prescriptions.

A Walgreens pharmacist told police Seljan was attempting to fill a prescription for a “Jacqueline Borgsteadt,” who was listed as “deceased” in their computer system.

The pharmacist said Seljan asked how much the prescription would cost and was told $514.49. He told her he needed “to go downtown” to get money and would return. The pharmacist later turned over to police the $515 in cash Seljan gave her for the prescription.

In the meantime, the pharmacist said she received a call from a pharmacist at CVS that Seljan had just dropped prescriptions for Ambien CR and Lipoderm Patch in the name of the same deceased person.

Les Szekely will end his popular “Les in the Morning” radio show on WEOL in August, he announced to coworkers in an e-mail yesterday. (more…)