Repair Shop

A 17-year-old girl was arrested Tuesday on charges of obstructing police by hiding a suspect wanted in connection with the drug-related death of a Westminster youth, police said.The girl was charged with harboring a fugitive, obstructing and hindering a police investigation, conspiracy to obstruct and hinder, and accessory after the fact, police said.The teen-ager, a girlfriend of a juvenile apprehended on alleged heroin distribution charges, was released to her mother, police said.The boy, who is being held in custody pending action by juvenile authorities, was found hiding in the basement of the girl's home on Feb. 6. He was the third teen-ager arrested in connection with the overdose death of Liam A. O'Hara, 15, a Westminster High student who was found dead at home in bed on Jan. 9 by his father.

A robber brandishing a silver-colored handgun stole diamonds and jewelry from a repair shop in The Mall in Columbia yesterday afternoon after binding the hands and feet of the store's owner and an employee, police said.At 12: 15 p.m., a man approached the owner of Columbia Jewelry Service Center and displayed a semiautomatic handgun, said Sgt. Steven E. Keller, spokesman for the Howard County police.The robber forced the owner into a back room, where he taped the man's hands and feet, then did the same to an employee, Keller said.

After a five-hour session last week, the Howard County Board of Appeals postponed a decision on the case of an Elkridge auto-repair shop whose owner is seeking approval to continue doing business in a residential zone -- a case that has been pending for five years.As the clock began to approach midnight Thursday, board members decided to go into the early hours of Friday to decide the case of Elkridge Motors, owned by Brian Wilson.But at 1: 30 a.m., still unable to decide if the business can remain, they unanimously voted to postpone the case until their next work session Thursday.

A mechanic at a Northwest Baltimore car repair shop was clinging to life yesterday at Johns Hopkins Hospital after he was beaten in the head with a sledgehammer in a dispute over how to fix a tire, city police said.Manley Maxwell, 36, of Randallstown, who works at Peas and Slider Auto Repair Shop in the 4100 block of W. Belvedere Ave., was in critical condition yesterday.His brother Rueben Maxwell, 34, who owns the shop, said Manley Maxwell repaired a flat tire Monday on a white Honda Civic.

On Liberty Road in Northwest Baltimore County, from just below Milford Mill to Rolling Road, in a stretch that is not quite three-quarters of a mile long and was once, in distant memory, a quiet country lane, here is what you would find yesterday morning:Two liquor stores, 15 fast-food outlets, four gas stations, three car mechanics, six hair salons, five clothes cleaners, a tire store, a check-cashing outlet, three used-clothing stores, a video repair shop,...

An article in yesterday's Anne Arundel edition of The Sun about the efforts of a Severna Park man to obtain the proper zoning for his Volkswagen repair shop reported incorrectly the time for the County Council to vote on land use issues.The County Council will vote on the General Development Plan, a blueprint for future zoning changes, in February. It is unclear when the council will vote on comprehensive rezoning.The Sun regrets the error.Joseph Langlois has spent 14 years building and expanding his Volkswagen repair shop in Severna Park and now serves more than 600 motorists.

I WANT A PIT CREW.I say this after attending the NASCAR Slim Jim All Pro Homestead 150. This is an automobile race held at the Homestead Motorsports Complex in Homestead, Fla., which is a nice, all-American town, although it's also the only town I know of where a Citizen's Crime Watch meeting was disrupted by falling cocaine bales. Really. The bales had been shoved out of a low-flying plane being pursued by federal drug agents; one bale nearly hit the Homestead police chief. Stuff like that is always happening in South Florida.

A Frederick County woman accused of stealing more than $6,000 from a Mount Airy automotive repair shop pleaded guilty to felony theft yesterday in Carroll Circuit Court.In return for her plea, Anne Marie Delligatti, 30, of the 2800 block of Hawks Hill Lane in Keedysville was granted probation before judgment by Judge Luke K. Burns Jr. She was placed on three years of unsupervised probation, was ordered to make $2,424 in restitution within 90 days and agreed to perform 125 hours of volunteer community service within the next year in Washington County.

More than 100 firefighters battled a blaze that destroyed a Northeast Baltimore auto repair shop early yesterday and forced the evacuation of at least 20 rowhouses that were threatened by burning embers.Damage to J&J Custom Auto Accessories was estimated at $1.3 million, including damage to more than a dozen cars and race cars inside the one-story brick building in the 1000 block of E. 25th St.Firefighters fought the six-alarm fire for more than two hours. One firefighter hurt his ankle when he slipped on ice. He was treated at Union Memorial Hospital.

2 men, one with Mace, rob television repair shopTwo men -- one with a can of Mace -- robbed a Crain Highway television repair shop Monday of an undisclosed amount, county police said yesterday.The men entered Johns TV Service in the 600 block of S. Crain Highway shortly after 3 p.m. One asked an employee a question. Before he could answer, the man sprayed him in the eyes with Mace, and began struggling with him.The men forced the clerk to open the cash register, grabbed money and ran. Police had no description of the bandits.