Police continue to look for a 32-year-old man wanted in connection with a robbery at the Thriftway Food Center in Orono last month in which several cartons of cigarettes were taken and he allegedly threatened a store employee.

According to police, Abernathy Miller already has an extensive criminal record, including a prior conviction for robbery and arrests for everything from disorderly conduct to theft and assaults. A warrant was issued for Miller’s arrest Dec. 5, reported Detective Sgt. Robert Bryant of the Orono Police Department. Local police departments were alerted to be on the lookout for Miller, who is well-known to these agencies.

The latest charges stem from an incident Nov. 12 when Bryant said Miller and another man entered the Thriftway and tried to take several cigarette cartons out of the store without paying for them. They were hidden in Miller’s clothing.

An employee confronted him and told him to put the cigarettes back and Miller responded by threatening to harm her and insisting that she didn’t see anything.

He then grabbed the employee and pushed her against the wall, Bryant said, before leaving the store.

Miller returned about a half-hour later to purchase some beer and left the store, but not before reiterating that the employee didn’t see anything.

Miller is described as being a black man about 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing about 190 pounds. He has a clean-shaven head, a mustache and a scar on his right index finger. Bryant said anyone coming across Miller should contact their local law enforcement agency.

A Bangor woman admitted to giving a special discount to friends while she was an employee of the Home Depot store in Bangor, letting her friends walk off with an estimated $4,000 worth of items from the store.

The thefts occurred over the course of several weeks, including one time on Nov. 29 when a store security camera apparently caught her on tape canceling a sale of nearly $170 without the people actually having paid for the items, which included an 18-gallon shop vacuum, two valances and a $90 wrench set.

A store security supervisor reported the thefts Wednesday, telling Officer Brad Johnston that the credit card used on Nov. 29 matched one that had been used for similarly canceled purchases amounting to $420 on Nov. 10.

The police report included a confession by the employee, Melissa Sargent, 21, who told store officials that she had been pressured into the thefts that involved five separate people.

She estimated that as much as $4,000 in goods had been taken from the store, from shingles to sheet rock, lumber, doors and power tools.

Sargent reported that they, in exchange, had given her money to help support her and her daughter. Sargent promised to pay the store for the amount taken. She lost her job and is scheduled to appear in Bangor District Court on the theft charge Jan. 19, 2001.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Doug Kesseli