Basement Apartment

Man robbed at knifepoint in homeA 23-year-old man was robbed at knifepoint Wednesday morning by a man who broke into his basement apartment and threatened to kill him if he told anyone about the crime, police reported.According to police, the burglar forced his way into the apartment in the 7800 block of Mayford Avenue about 10 a.m. and woke the resident, who walked into the kitchen and found the burglar with a knife.The burglar told the man to sit down and asked if he had any money. When the resident said "no," the burglar asked about the upstairs apartment.

30 luxury homes OK'd for Harper's ChoiceThe county Planning Board approved yesterday the Rouse Co's. plans for a community of 30 custom-built luxury homes in Harper's Choice Village.By a 5-0 vote, the board approved the final development plan for the Estates at Forest Glen on a 61-acre wooded parcel sandwiched between the Hobbit's Glen Golf Course and the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area. The development will have road access to Route 108, and not through other communities in the village.

The wife of a retired minister was in critical and unstable condition today after she was overcome by smoke in a fire that claimed the life of her husband, a spokeswoman at the Shock-Trauma Unit in Baltimore said.The four-alarm fire destroyed the couple's basement apartment in the former Frederick Douglass High School in West Baltimore.Sally Page, in her 80s, was overcome by smoke that filled the apartment and killed her husband, the Rev. Oliver Page, also in his 80s.Capt. Patrick Flynn, a Fire Department spokesman, said the fire was caused by faulty electrical wiring in a bedroom baseboard that set a bed on fire.

A Baltimore City firefighter responding to a single-alarm blaze was injured and taken to the hospital with minor burns early Sunday evening, according to Capt. Roman Clark, a spokesman for the department. Firefighters were called to the 1600 block of N. Hilton shortly after 6 p.m., where a fire was burning the basement unit of a two-story apartment building. Officers used ladders to help vacate the upper floors of the building, Clark said. The fire was under control by 6:10, but two occupants of the building were injured.

A two-alarm fire that started shortly before midnight Wednesday damaged a Glen Burnie apartment building and sent four residents and one firefighter to area hospitals for treatment of burns and smoke inhalation.Twenty-four residents of the building in the 100 block of Governor's Court were forced into the bitter cold by the fire, which began in the rear bedroom of a basement apartment and spread quickly.It took firefighters 45 minutes to put out the fire in the 11-unit building, Fire Battalion Chief J. Gary Sheckells said.

A barn and farm equipment on Maple Lawn Farms in Fulton were destroyed Sunday by a fire, the Howard County Fire and Rescue Services said.A Holstein bull was killed, and a diesel tractor and about 120 bales of hay worth a combined $30,000 wee burned. Damage to the barn was estimated at $40,000.The cause of the fire is under investigation.Girl found unconscious in parents' poolA 12-year-old Lisbon girl was pulled unconscious from her parent's pool Saturday in the 3000 block of Shady Lane after nearly drowning, fire officials said.

Two Mount Airy men who were arrested during a drug raid Friday were being held yesterday at the Carroll County Detention Center, each on $100,000 bail, state police said.Deputy Richard Winer of the Frederick County Sheriff's Office was assisted by state police from Carroll County during an 8: 30 p.m. drug raid at a residence in the 800 block of E. Ridgeville Blvd., which is in Carroll County near the Frederick County line, police said.While the basement apartment was being searched, troopers outside the building saw two men who fit the description of the apartment's occupants pull up.The men were stopped and a police dog examined their car, police said.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Howard County.Ellicott City: 7000 block of Montgomery Road: A red, two-door 1988 Dodge Daytona, Maryland license plate BXB-923, was stolen Sunday.Owen Brown: 6300 block of Red Haven Road: A green 1993 Dodge Caravan, Maryland license plate 574861M, was stolen Friday or Saturday.Owen Brown: 9600 block of Gerwig Lane: Someone threw a rock into a glass door of Page Atlantic Inc. on Friday. Nothing was reported missing.Long Reach: 1100 block of Dried Earth Blvd.

City homicide detectives are investigating the death of a man whose stabbed and beaten body was found early yesterday in the basement of a Northwest Baltimore house after firefighters extinguished a blaze there. The man's name was being withheld pending notification of family members. Reported at 4:45 a.m. in the 2600 block of W. Cold Spring Lane, the fire was confined to a basement apartment and extinguished in less than 30 minutes, said Fire Chief Kevin Cartwright, a spokesman for the city Fire Department.

A man fatally shot three people, including a husband and wife, during a dispute with his girlfriend at an apartment complex in the Bowleys Quarters area last night, Baltimore County police said. Capt. Joseph Burris, commander of the Essex Precinct, said the man forced his girlfriend into a late-model, light blue or green Dodge Caravan after the shooting and that police were searching for the vehicle early today. Police did not release the name of the suspect or the names of the victims.