Two people have been charged in connection with the theft Wednesday of more than a half-dozen leather coats from the Lane Bryant store at the Bangor Mall.

Bangor police charged Michael Garland, 44, with theft and receiving stolen property while his girlfriend, Jessica Payne, 22, was charged with receiving stolen property in connection with the theft of eight leather coats, valued at a total of $2,000. Payne also had been wanted on a warrant for failure to appear in court.

Although the theft was not seen by store employees, other witnesses at the mall saw the two leaving with the coats, including one woman who was a former neighbor of Garland’s.

The investigation led authorities to Payne’s apartment at 477 Hammond St., where the police found Payne and Garland and recovered six of the jackets still on Lane Bryant hangers. Authorities recovered the other two coats at a 61 Curve St. residence, where police had first tried to find Garland and were told he was at his girlfriend’s apartment on Hammond Street.

Garland initially denied involvement in the theft, telling Detective Larry Ellis that several other people had been in and out of the apartment. Payne, however, told police that Garland had showed up alone early Thursday morning with the jackets.

Each of the coats was valued at $249.

A Lincoln man faces several drug charges after an Orono police officer discovered that the man had the hallucinogenic drug Ecstasy on him, as well as some marijuana.

Officer Scott Wilcox reported spotting two men in a car outside of the Park Street bar Ushuaia late night Dec. 1. One of the men was fully reclined in the passenger seat and was using his hands to hold his eyes open wide. The second man, identified as Ryan McCafferty, 24, was leaning over the other man from the driver’s seat and blowing a medicinal vapor inhaler into the man’s eyes. According to police, the vapor inhaler blown on the eyes enhances the effects of Ecstasy.

McCafferty continued to blow the inhaler even while Wilcox knocked on the car window to get his attention. Eventually McCafferty rolled down the window and asked Wilcox what he wanted, the officer said.

During their conversation with Wilcox, the two men admitted to using Ecstasy and went as far as to say that they had used three Ecstasy pills between them that night. They allowed Wilcox to search them and as a result, Wilcox reported finding four pills on McCafferty that later tested positive for being Ecstasy. He also found a small bag of marijuana and a marijuana pipe.

Wilcox charged McCafferty with the felony charge of possession of a Schedule W drug – Ecstasy – as well as possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a usable amount of marijuana. The other man was not charged with anything, according to police.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Doug Kesseli