Man Fled

A man attempting to rob the Bradford Federal Savings Bank Friday fled the Ellicott City bank with little, if any, money when an exploding pack discharged tear gas, red dye and red smoke.Less than an hour later, Howard County police detained several people who had been driving on Bethany Lane toward Route 99, but they were later released.By yesterday, no one had been charged.Sgt. Steven Keller, Howard County police spokesman, said that about 11: 15 a.m. Friday, a man held up to a teller at the bank a manila envelope with the message: "I HAVE A GUN!

A woman who got into a stranger's car in Laurel Tuesday night fought off the man by poking him in the face with a stick after he hit her with a metal flashlight, county police said.Rachel Jean Hurst, 18, of the 1600 block of Lorimer Road in Glen Burnie was in stable condition yesterday afternoon at North Arundel Hospital, a spokeswoman said.Police said she accepted a ride from a man on Route 1 about 9:50 p.m., police said. The man told her he had to stop for gas and pick up something from work, police said.

Armed man robs Odenton video storeA man armed with a long-barreled revolver robbed an Odenton video store of an undisclosed amount of money Thursday night, county police said.The man walked into Odenton Video, in the 1100 block of Annapolis Road, about 9:15 p.m. and asked the clerk, Deborah )) Ann Grimm, 36, for change for a $10 bill. As the clerk opened the register, the man pulled out a silver revolver and ordered her to put cash from the drawer into a blue plastic bag he had hidden under his shirt.

County police arrested a homeless man on a burglary charge Friday as he fled from a house in the first block of Ferndale Road, authorities said yesterday.The man apparently slipped through an unlocked door shortly after 12 a.m. and was discovered by Barbara J. Wheeler, who lives in the house. The man fled when she began screaming, police said.Police tracked the man with a K-9 dog and found him a few blocks away, "sweaty from running," police said.Officers said he gave a false name when they asked him to identify himself.

Members of the county Sheriff's Department, joined by the state police helicopter, Westminster police and several K-9 units, searched the grounds of Westminster High School and Carroll County Career and Technology Center on Washington Road for a man who escaped from a sheriff's deputy yesterday.Officials said a deputy was trying to serve a warrant on the man, whose identity was not available, at a home on Washington Lane when the man fled. He ran toward the school grounds, officials said.

A man found lying unconscious on a road in Jessup early Sunday was probably the victim of a hit-and-run accident, Howard County rescue officials said.Emergency workers found Donald Yount, a man in his 30s with no known address, in the 8300 block of Barkwood Court about 2 a.m. Sunday, said Lt. Dan Merson, a spokesman for the Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue.A state police MedEvac helicopter flew Mr. Yount to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, where he was in critical but stable condition yesterday.

A Baltimore man was arrested on drug charges early Saturday morning after police say he ran from them while swallowing a plastic bag filled with crack cocaine.The man was caught near the intersection of Bowman Road and Admiral Drive, a well-known open air drug market, police said.As the man ran, an officer said he saw bits of plastic hanging out of the man's mouth. The officer field-tested some of the white substance coating the man's lower lip and determined it was crack cocaine, police said.

Havre de Grace police are searching for a man driving a late-model gray Ford truck with a double gasoline tank. The suspect filled up the tank at Woodie's Mobile Station in the 1100 block of Revolution St. on Tuesday, then drove off before paying $37.55 for the purchase.Reward offered in theft of jewelry and gunsHarford County Crime Solvers is offering a reward up to $1,000 for the arrest and indictment of someone who broke into a Darlington residence Dec. 4 and fled with more than $7,000 in jewelry and guns.

The man charged in the arson fire that destroyed the Sportsman Hall roller-skating rink in Arcadia Sunday morning had escaped hours earlier from a state facility for the developmentally disabled, a state mental health official said yesterday.John Paul Zomack, 19, broke through a security window at the Rosewood Center and walked away Saturday afternoon, said Robert W. Eastridge, deputy director of public health services for the state health department.Rosewood is in Owings Mills, about 12 miles from the roller rink.

An elderly couple arrived at their home in the 500 block of Hampton Lane in Hampton Village last night and surprised a burglar who tied them up, put them in a closet and continued looting the house.Baltimore County police said the couple, Harold Burns, 83, and his companion, Ruth Kammer, 76, were not injured.Police said Mr. Burns and Ms. Kammer arrived at their home, off Dulaney Valley Road just north of the Beltway, at 9:45 p.m. and opened the front door. They were confronted by a man who had broken in through a side bedroom window.