DOVER-FOXCROFT – Two Abbot juveniles were arrested Tuesday afternoon on charges of theft and aggravated criminal mischief in connection with the theft of four snowmobiles from Conrad’s Sales and Service in Abbot.

The two youths, 15 and 17, allegedly took the Polaris snowmobiles valued at $20,000. They were turned over to juvenile justice officials for prosecution.

Their arrests came as a result of an investigation into the 9 p.m. theft of gasoline on Monday from Irving’s in Dover-Foxcroft. A clerk at the store reported a drive-away incident involving a snowmobile.

“Everything kind of fell into place,” Investigator Guy Dow of the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department, said Wednesday.

Dow said he found two snowmobilers on Monday on a trail near Blaine Avenue that he suspected were involved with the gasoline theft. He attempted to stop the snowmobile drivers, but the drivers sped off on the snowmobile trail. Believing that the snowmobilers would continue to follow the trail to Guilford, Dow said he traveled to Blaine Avenue in Guilford, where he stopped his cruiser at the end of the trail where it crossed the highway.

Dow said he got out of his vehicle and proceeded to walk on the snowmobile trail where he met one of the snowmobilers. The first had already passed that section of trail, he said.

Sgt. Investigator Robert Young, who also investigated the incident, said the driver of the snowmobile slowed his vehicle initially and then sped up as he approached Dow.

Dow said that as he jumped out of the way to avoid being struck by the snowmobile, he threw his flashlight at the headlight of the snowmobile hoping to disable it. The driver continued speeding down the trail and around the parked cruiser.

A short time later, a juvenile on a snowmobile was seen on the Monument Road in Abbot. As he traveled from the Monument Road onto Route 15, the snowmobile struck and bounced off the steel bridge in Abbot before continuing at a high rate of speed onto the Back Abbot Road, according to the officers. Police lost the vehicles at this point.

Dow said it was coincidence that he found one juvenile walking early Tuesday morning on High Street in Guilford with a group of other people. The officer said he was aware that one of the juveniles, a 15-year-old boy, was on probation and had a curfew, so Dow took him home. The boy reeked of gasoline, so Dow suspected he had been involved in the earlier theft from Irving’s.

Later Tuesday morning, Dow called Conrad’s Sales and Service in Abbot to alert them that someone might request the repair of a snowmobile headlight, though it later turned out that the headlight wasn’t broken. Dow said he also provided the owner, Conrad Rollins, who had just arrived to open the business for the day, with a description of the snowmobile whose headlight he thought he had damaged and asked who might own such a machine.

A few minutes after that call, when he had time to check his lot, Rollins notified police that four of his snowmobiles, including the one identified by Dow, were missing.

A search, which included the assistance of game wardens from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, discovered one snowmobile abandoned behind Conrad’s, another stashed near the Piscataquis River and a third hidden off the trail near Harlow Pond. Dow found the fourth vehicle abandoned on the Back Abbot Road. The clutch had been burned out in that vehicle, he said.

Tracks and evidence found at the business led police to an Abbot home where the 17-year-old allegedly confessed to the crime. Dow said the 15-year-old boy who reeked of gasoline also admitted his participation in the thefts.