Man tells Middletown police he ran from robber who said, ‘We can do this the easy way or the hard way’

A Middletown man told police he was robbed of a cell phone and $5 in change after a man climbed into his car and said: “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” according to a police report.

Police were called Wednesday night to the corner of Jewell Avenue and Lowell Street on a report of a robbery. The man told officers that after he dropped off a woman — whose name he didn’t know — in the 4000 block of Jewell, a man jumped into the front passenger seat, according to the report.