A local man was arrested and charged with drunken driving after a truck driver found him early Friday morning slumped over and unresponsive in his pickup truck, which was stuck in a snowbank.

Stephen T. LeBlanc, 28, of Bangor was arrested and charged with operating under the influence of intoxicating liquor after testing registered a blood-alcohol content of 0.23, nearly triple the legal limit of .08, according to police.

According to a report prepared by Bangor Police Department Officer Brian Nichols, Bangor police and emergency rescue personnel were called to the intersection of Thatcher Street and Perry Road at about 2 a.m. Friday to respond to reports of a vehicle that went off the road with an unresponsive male inside.

When they arrived, they found LeBlanc still inside his green 1994 Mazda pickup, which apparently hit a bank at the end of a driveway. The bank appears to have acted as a ramp as there were no tire marks in the snow from where the bank was initially struck and where the truck came to a rest, about 40 feet away, according to police. The front driver-side section of the truck was buried in the snow.

A paramedic had LeBlanc exit from the front passenger-side door.

“He slid out of the truck and fell over in the snow,” according to Nichols’ report. LeBlanc then walked to the ambulance, weaving as he did so, and climbed aboard.

LeBlanc allegedly told a paramedic that he’d consumed five beers and had been driving the truck. He later told Nichols that he “just drove off the road.”

Though police tried to administer a field sobriety test, testing was stopped out of concern for LeBlanc’s safety. “The longer I attempted the test, the worse [LeBlanc] complied with instructions. … LeBlanc was too intoxicated to safely attempt further field sobriety exercises,” Nichols noted.

LeBlanc was ordered to respond to the charge next month in Bangor District Court.

A car reported stolen Thursday afternoon from an employee parking lot at the Bangor Mall was recovered in Orono early Friday.

According to a report prepared by the Bangor Police Department, a 31-year-old Orrington woman reported her maroon 1990 Dodge Spirit missing from the employee lot near J.C. Penney on Thursday. The automobile was unlocked and the keys were inside when it was taken, according to police.

The car was found, no worse for the wear, shortly after midnight Friday on the Kelley Road in Orono. A bulletin asking area patrol officers to keep an eye out for the missing car was cancelled.

– Compiled by NEWS staffer Dawn Gagnon