Two teens arrested in Hampden burglary Police explore possible link with other break-ins

HAMPDEN – Investigators are looking into whether two people arrested Tuesday night for burglary are connected with numerous other home burglaries that have been reported in the area.

Justin Searway, 18, and a 16-year-old boy, both from Glenburn, were arrested Tuesday evening and charged with burglary and theft after police linked the car they were in to a burglary that had occurred about 20 minutes earlier on the Meadow Road in Hampden.

A Penobscot County sheriff’s deputy stopped the car on Route 222 in the Levant-Glenburn area after authorities learned the registered owner lived in Glenburn.

Hampden police had been alerted at 4:48 p.m. after two teen-agers, one of them a resident of the Meadow Road home, arrived home and discovered two strangers leaving the home.

Hampden police Officer Chris Bailey said the men, later identified as Searway and the 16-year-old, fled in a car, driving on the grass and bypassing the couple who had stopped their car in the driveway. The car, with Searway and the teen-ager inside, then sped off.

The resident and her boyfriend managed to get the car’s license plate, as well as a good description of the car and the two people, Bailey said. They called the police, who in turn alerted other local agencies.

Bailey said that after the car was stopped on Route 222, one of the witnesses was brought to the scene and identified the car and both men as having been at the Meadow Road home a short time earlier.

The car was impounded and taken to the Hampden police station, where it was searched. Police recovered a large glass container of coins, mostly pennies, and a camera, said Sgt. Dan Stewart. Both items were identified as having come from inside the Hampden home, he said.

Local authorities are investigating numerous other home burglaries in the central Penobscot County area. Detective William Flagg of the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday that he is investigating whether this burglary in Hampden is related to any of the other burglaries that his department is handling.