Thursday, February 24, 2000
Suspected burglar gets stuck in chimney
BY PHILLIP PINA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A suspected burglar was stuck inside the chimney of a Lower Price Hill bar for nearly three hours Wednesday morning before being freed — and then jailed.
Dale Sprecker faces charges of aggravated burglary and carrying a concealed weapon after rescue workers toiled for 90 minutes to free him. The 20-year-old Lower Price Hill man was trying to break into the Sportsman's Bar at 2140 W. Eighth St., police said.
Cincinnati firefighters tore out part of the tavern's wall and cleared the chimney's lining to free Mr. Sprecker about 7 a.m., police said. They found a knife in his pants pocket.
A thin man, about 5-foot-11 and 140 pounds, Mr. Sprecker had apparently climbed a tree and jumped onto the roof of the two-story structure to break in, police said. He got lodged in the chimney between the first floor and the basement, they said.
According to Sharon Walker, the bar employee who found Mr. Sprecker about 5:30 a.m., he had apparently cut himself trying to break in.
“He was pretty messed up,” she said. Yet, when rescue workers tried to put him into an ambulance, he jumped up and tried to run away, Ms. Walker said.
Police officers quickly caught Mr. Sprecker and arrested him.
Ms. Walker said co-workers saw Mr. Sprecker in the bar the night before, playing pool. She suspects it was about 4 a.m. when he must have tried to break in. She got to work about 4:30 a.m. to prepare the tavern for opening.
When Ms. Walker was in the bar's kitchen about 5:30 a.m. she thought she heard some noises coming from the basement. “It sounded like someone was yelling to me,” she said.
So she grabbed her can of Mace and a flashlight. The bar's maintenance worker, George Burton, grabbed a butcher knife and then went down the stairs to discover Mr. Sprecker, and his predicament.
“We kind of started chuckling,” Ms. Walker said.
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