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3 Canonsburg boys give 2 teens all they could handle

Saturday, November 02, 2002

By Joe Smydo, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

A couple of devils stalked Canonsburg on Halloween night and gave three boys the fright of their lives.

	Ian Aquilino and his father John. (Robert J. Pavuchak, Post-Gazette)

Two teenagers dressed in black jumped a younger trio of trick-or-treaters about 7:40 p.m. Thursday and made off with one boy's pillowcase of candy. But the thieves paid a price for their cruel trick.

Twelve-year-old Ian Aquilino, going door-to-door as a zombie, swung his bag of candy at one of the assailants and kicked him in the side.

"He didn't fall or anything, but he really kind of flinched," Ian, a karate student for four years, said yesterday.

Ian's friend, 12-year-old Brad Strimel, dressed as a baseball player, smacked one of the attackers with the bat he carried. And Brad's brother, 11-year-old Grant, wearing a magician's costume, whacked one of the thieves with his wooden walking stick so hard the stick splintered.

"I'm guessing they didn't know we would fight back," Ian said.

The thieves picked up the pillowcase of candy Brad had dropped during the melee and melted into the shadows.

"They said it all was over in about 30 seconds," said Denise Strimel, Brad and Grant's mother.

In Canonsburg and other small towns, it's common for police officers and firefighters to cruise the streets during trick-or-treat hours, slowing traffic to keep young goblins safe.

Ian and the Strimels flagged down Deputy Police Chief Harold Coleman, who searched for the teenagers but couldn't find them. With the vaguest of descriptions -- two black youths in hooded shirts -- Coleman didn't have a ghost of a chance.

Did the forces of good and evil choose the 300 block of West College Street as a Halloween battleground? Actually, a police official said, the teenagers probably were just too lazy to go collect their own candy.

The thieves preyed on the wrong kids, said Ian's father, John Aquilino, touting his son's karate training. The boys were not injured, but, as Denise Strimel told it, they're somewhat haunted by the event.

"The little one said, 'Mom, it was scary.' "

The drama so horrified other trick-or-treaters they took up a collection and offered Brad some of their treats.

It was the first time the Aquilinos and Strimels had allowed their children to trick-or-treat without supervision. The Aquilinos kept in touch with their son by walkie-talkie, however.

Perhaps a quarter-mile from their neighborhood, the boys stopped at a friend's house, planning to go inside and call for a ride home. But the house was dark. As the trio prepared to go, Ian said, they saw the teenagers standing on the corner.

"We were just a little nervous, with the way they looked and hoods and everything," Ian said.

The boys began walking, and the teenagers quickly gained on them. Ian remembered Brad saying, "Get ready."

"They grabbed me, and they spun me around," Ian said. " When I spun, I just swung the bag of candy ... the karate just popped out."

Brad and Grant headed to a hockey tournament in Detroit yesterday, while their mother worked to find Grant a new walking stick. Ian mesmerized classmates with the story.

"The word spread real fast," he said.

For a couple of years, Ian and his friends have helped with a neighborhood "haunted trail" to raise money for charity. Visitors are led along a pathway featuring music, eerie lights, ghouls and skeletons. This year, the volunteers raised $140 for a Flight 93 memorial fund.

Sadly, John Aquilino said, the boys' own Halloween fun was cut short. He had this message for the thieves:

"I hope you choke on your candy."

Joe Smydo can be reached at jsmydo@post-gazette.com or 724-746-8812.