Two Men Attempt to Steal Car, Crash it into Neighbor's Fence

A Huntingdon Valley resident called LMPD on Monday, Sept. 10 to report her car was being stolen from her driveway on the 2300 block of Boyd Road. She was sleeping but was awoken when she heard a loud noise coming from outside her house. When she looked out the window she saw her husband’s gold Toyota Highlander had been moved and crashed into their neighbors’ fence. She yelled from her bedroom window and at that time a young white male exited the car and ran between some trees towards Boyd Road. A neighbor across the street also saw the incident and began yelling towards the males.

Police responded to the scene and observed a blue Mazda sedan leaving the area at a high rate of speed. The driver disregarded a stop sign to initiate a traffic stop. Two people were in the car; the driver and a passenger sitting in the back seat behind the driver.

The passenger identified himself as Andrey Merezhka, but it was later discovered that he was actually Yaroslav Volfson, 20, of Philadelphia, and he provided false information to the police. The clothes he was wearing also matched the description by some witnesses in the neighborhood. The driver, Artem Sirant, 23, of Upper Chicheste, was positively identified.

Both men were placed under arrest and a search revealed a small piece of paper in the front left side of Volfson’s sweatpants. The paper was cut out from a PA registration card owned by the husband of the woman who called the police. The typing on the card had the husband's name and address, and the word "CAMRY" was written on the back of the paper in pen. The husband believes the two men removed his wallet from the driver’s side door panel.

The Mazda seden was impounded and the Toyota sustained moderate damage to the front bumper and driver’s side quarter panel. The neighbor’s fence was severely damaged.