Security video leads to couple’s arrest

Bangor police investigators traced a purchase with a stolen credit card to a Bangor couple and subsequently charged them with theft of the card and $4,000 worth of camera equipment that had been taken from a car in late December.

Christy Dempsey, 31, and her boyfriend Scott Howes, 30, have each been charged with burglary and theft in connection with the Dec. 26 theft outside Hoyt’s

Cinemas.

The theft occurred sometime between 3 and 4:20 p.m., reported Detective Sgt. Ronald Gastia. Records that the police obtained showed that a short time later, a credit card taken from the car was used at Circuit City.

Gastia said Dempsey and Howes purchased nearly $100 in electronics and then tried to return the items for a cash refund. Their plans for quick cash were confounded when the Bangor store only would issue a refund on the credit card.

Gastia said that the two were identified several days ago while reviewing store security cameras. Since then, investigators kept an eye out on the couple’s residence on Ohio Street as well as for their car. Police stopped the car about 6 p.m. Wednesday on Second Street.

The owners of the stolen items reported that they believed they had left their vehicle locked and then when they returned to it found it still locked, but with the camera equipment and other items

missing.

Gastia said that the investigation continues and that additional charges could be filed against the pair.

Bangor police were sent to Essex Street Wednesday night for several reports of a man pushing a woman to the ground.

Officer Chris Desmond spoke to both parties, Peter Tuller, 28, and his 40-year-old girlfriend. Tuller claimed he had been living with her for about a year and that they were just walking home after leaving a friend’s home where they had been drinking. She denied living with Tuller, telling police she hadn’t seen him for months.

The woman also initially denied even being assaulted, but later told Desmond that Tuller had pushed her to the ground.

This had been witnessed by at least two people, including one man who reported that Tuller struck the woman and knocked her to the ground.

Desmond arrested Tuller, charging him with domestic assault. Tuller is on probation and his probation officer was contacted. The woman was uncooperative and Desmond reported that he later learned she too was on probation.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Doug Kesseli