By Sheila McLaughlin
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LEBANON - Observant witnesses and dogged police work are being credited for the quick arrests of two men accused in a robbery spree this week in Deerfield Township.

"It was bits of information from witnesses and victims, along with other things uniformed deputies developed on their own and good shoe leather by the detectives," sheriff's spokesman Capt. John Newsom said Friday.

"It led them to knock on the right door."

Shane Prince, 21, of Deerfield Township, and Jeremy White, 20, of Mason, were arrested about 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Mr. Prince's apartment, less than 24 hours after the first street robbery was reported.

Mr. White is charged with four counts of aggravated robbery, one count of felonious assault for allegedly pistol-whipping a neighbor who came to the aid of one of the victims, and a charge of aggravated burglary because one of the incidents occurred inside the victim's garage.

Mr. Prince faces four counts of aggravated robbery and one count of misdemeanor assault.

In Deerfield, they are accused of robbing three women and a man as they got out of their cars in their driveways during a five-hour crime spree late Wednesday and early Thursday.

The incidents occurred within a mile of each other, beginning at 9:20 p.m. on Sunfish Lane in Landen. Two other robberies occurred in Steeplechase Apartments off U.S. 22/Ohio 3 after midnight with another at 2 a.m. in the Nantucket development blocks away.

Lt. Jerry Mays, who heads the sheriff's detective squad, said a fifth robbery was averted when a woman noticed a small white car following her and called her husband on her cell phone to meet her in their driveway. The car left when the husband came out of the house.