Officer clocks Stockholm driver at excess speed

A Stockholm man was arrested for operating under the influence Monday afternoon after he was stopped for speeding while driving west on Ohio Street near Interstate 95.

A Bangor police officer was clocking vehicles on radar while sitting in his vehicle at the entrance to the Mount Pleasant Cemetery on Ohio Street, when he noticed that a pickup truck outbound on Ohio Street was exceeding the speed limit.

Officer Daniel C. Herrick reportedly clocked Timothy Sandstrom traveling 44 mph in a 25 mph zone. Herrick took off after Sandstrom, who began driving erratically. Sandstrom pulled into a driveway of a private dwelling on Ohio Street and was approached by Herrick, who asked him to produce his operator’s license, registration and proof of insurance.

Sandstrom produced a registration and proof of insurance, but no license, Herrick said. The vehicle belonged to another party, and Sandstrom could show no proof of a valid Maine driver’s license, although he said he had one.

Herrick reported a strong smell of alcohol on Sandstrom’s breath and asked him how much he had to drink. Sandstrom stated that he had had one drink, but Herrick noted that there was a six-pack of beer on the floor of the vehicle with three cans missing. Sandstrom said he had consumed them the night before. After shutting off the ignition to the pickup, Sandstrom then was asked to perform a field sobriety test and failed all aspects of the test, Herrick reported.

Herrick gave Sandstrom a field interview card and a pen and told him to write down a series of letters of the alphabet, from the letter E to P; to write his date of birth; the time he thought it was; and to sign his name. When Sandstrom filled out the date, he mentioned to Herrick that the next day was his birthday.

However, according to Herrick, Sandstrom wrote the alphabet letters, mumbling aloud from A to E, but “messing up the letter J on the form,” Herrick reported. Sandstrom then reportedly said that he couldn’t remember what else to write. Herrick urged Sandstrom to write what he remembered, but Sandstrom reportedly said that “what he wrote down was all he could remember to do.”

Herrick noted that Sandstrom exceeded the speed limit by 19 mph. He arrested Sandstrom for operating under the influence and then discovered that he was carrying an amount of marijuana and a pot pipe in his pocket, for which Sandstrom was issued a summons.

Sandstrom was taken to the Bangor Police Department and issued an Intoxilyzer test, which resulted in a 0.16 listing. Herrick then took the Sandstrom to the county jail.

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An employee at the Quirk Auto wholesale lot on Summer Street notified Bangor police that an unknown person had gained entry to a green two-door Jimmy that was used as a “key safe” for all of the lot’s vehicles.

Bangor police Officer Shawn Green responded to the call, and at the car lot was told that the Jimmy had been entered during the night. Inside the Jimmy was a bent-hanger key chain that held 180 keys which fit all but a couple of cars on the lot, it was reported. A few of the keys on the ring fit vehicles that were stored on other Quirk lots, Green was told. Nothing was taken.

The employee said it was a common practice to store keys in a locked vehicle overnight because the business previously had keys stolen from inside the building.

The person who reported the break-in said that another employee reportedly locked the Jimmy with the keys in it the night before when the business was closed for the night. No signs of forced entry were apparent on the Jimmy, Green reported, and no other lot had keys to the Jimmy at the time. There were no suspects reported.

– Compiled by NEWS staffer Alixandra Williams