A complaint about a barking dog on Leighton Ave. last week led to the arrest of a 46-year-old man on heroin-related charges.
      About 10:30 p.m. on Wed., Sept. 4, Ptl. Thomas Zorzi responded to the barking dog complaint and went to 87 Leighton Ave. in an attempt to make contact with the resident.
      “After knocking on the front door, I was met by a male,” Zorzi said, adding the man was identified as Robert Peoples, who was wanted on warrants that included trafficking in heroin and possession of heroin that had been issued out of Sandusky County, Oh.
      “He asked me if he had warrants...and then proceeded to close the door and lock it,” Officer Zorzi said.
      Immediately, five additional law enforcement officers joined Zorzi and when Peoples was asked to exit the home, he said he was babysitting his 3-year-old daughter.
      “Her mother isn’t home, I’m not coming out,” Zorzi said Peoples told police.
      Zorzi said Peoples then spoke with the child’s mother and then contacted a neighbor, identified as 49-year-old Kenneth Little, of 88 Leighton Ave., to take custody of the child.
      “Peoples then opened the door and was placed under arrest,” Officer Zorzi said.
      Police then discovered that Little is a registered sex offender, and because of this, could not take custody of the child,.
      Ptl. Nick Manis and Ptl. Brian Moss then watched the child until her mother arrived at the home.
      According to documents filed with the Court of Common Pleas in Sandusky County, Peoples was indicted in Feb., 2019 on charges of trafficking in heroin, possession of 89.56 grams of heroin, and tampering with evidence (attempting to conceal the heroin in a woman’s vagina).
      Peoples was lodged in the Mahoning County Jail pending extradition to Sandusky County, Officer Zorzi said.