Owen Brown

About 2,000 Owen Brown residents temporarily lost their electricity yesterday after contractors working in the area accidentally damaged three underground cables.The outage occurred about 9:30 a.m. when the contractors struck cables near a Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. substation on Oakland Mills Road, at Cradlerock Way and Swan Point Way and on Cedar Lane, south of Hickory Ridge, said Peggy Mulloy, BGE spokeswoman.She said power was restored by noon.POLICE LOG* Hickory Ridge: 10400 block of Hickory Ridge Road: A resident who left an apartment for 25 minutes returned to find the kitchen window open and its screen pried out Wednesday night.

The Blockbuster Video in Owen Brown village was robbed at gunpoint late Sunday, Howard County police said. The three employees were found handcuffed to a bathroom sink, unharmed.About midnight, two men showed handguns and forced the employees to the back of the store in the 6400 block of Dobbin Road, said Sgt. Steven Keller, a spokesman for Howard County police.The men stole an undetermined amount of cash from registers and a safe before fleeing, Keller said.Minutes later, a customer returning a video noticed the store's doors unlocked and the lights on but no one inside.

A new crime-prevention calendar will be given free to Owen Brown village residents later this year, courtesy of the state.The village board won a $2,400 grant from the governor's Office of Crime Control this month to produce a calendar with advice on how to prevent being robbed, burglarized or harassed."

A 23-year-old Baltimore woman was robbed of cash and jewelry as she left an Owen Brown shopping center Friday evening, Howard County police said.The victim was heading to her car in the 9000 block of Snowden River Parkway at 6 p.m. when a man approached and demanded her belongings, police said.The woman said the man held his hand in his pocket as if he had a gun, then ran away after she handed over her property, police said.The suspect is described as white, in his early- to mid-20s, 6 feet to 6 feet 4 inches tall.

An Owen Brown man admitted in Howard County Circuit Court to violently shaking a 6-month-old girl about a month after he and his wife adopted her and another child from Russia.Richard Mark Armon, 34, of the 7100 block of Stag Horn Path pleaded guilty before Judge Raymond J. Kane Jr. Monday to one count of child abuse. His sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 30.Under the plea agreement, he would receive a suspended sentence and continue to undergo therapy, Assistant State's Attorney Kathi Hill said.

THE OWEN BROWN village board has appointed Susan Mead and Richard Diener to fill vacancies on the board. They will serve until the next board elections in April 1997.Former members were Wanda Hurt, who was elected to represent the village on the Columbia Council, and Catherine Hester, who resigned.Also in Owen Brown, village manager Ruth Bothse and her staff will miss Othella Rogers. She has been on the village staff for six years and has resigned to accept a position at the Columbia Association's Member Service Center at The Mall in Columbia.

The fate of the Lake Elkhorn tot lot is out of the Columbia Association's hands -- for the moment. The association board decided Thursday night to shift the responsibility of whether to put a barrier around the popular Columbia playground to the village board of Owen Brown -- where the tot lot is located. The action followed a 5-3 vote that denied a motion to move the subject to a Columbia Association committee. "I fundamentally don't think it makes a difference at this point, and [the Owen Brown community]

Two fires in east Columbia caused thousands of dollars in damage Monday, the Howard County Fire and Rescue officials said.About 12: 36 p.m., rescue crews responded to a call in the 6800 block of Many Days in Owen Brown village and extinguished a fire that had begun when a heat pump outside a single-family rancher burst into flames, said Lt. Kenneth Byerly, as fire and rescue spokesman.Flames crept up the side of the house, spreading to rooms on the second floor and the attic, a report said.

Two masked men with semiautomatic handguns robbed a pizza shop in Columbia's Owen Brown village and assaulted one of the employees Wednesday night, Howard County police said.The robbers entered the Pizza Bolis in the 7100 block of Oakland Mills Road with guns drawn about 11:10 p.m. and announced a robbery to the five employees there, police said.One robber struck an employee on the head and forced the store manager to open the cash register, police said.The robbers ran from the store with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Howard County police raided three Owen Brown homes and arrested four people on drug-related charges Wednesday night, ending what police described as a four-month investigation into illegal drug activity in the neighborhood.Police said the investigation began when neighbors of the raided houses, which are in the 6500 block of Overheart Lane, complained.Three people in one of the houses -- identified by police as Alfreda Woodson, 48, Robert Lloyd Jones, 20, and a 17-year-old Baltimore youth -- were arrested and charged with possession of an ounce of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.