Man seen taking quilts from EMMC Gift shop employee on break during theft

Four quilts were stolen Saturday from the gift shop at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor while a shop employee was on her lunch break.

The quilts, made in China and valued at $125 each, were displayed outside the shop when the woman locked the shop door and went to lunch at about 12:30 p.m. The gift shop is in the lobby of EMMC.

Ed Beaulier, a security guard at the hospital, saw a man take the quilts off the display rack and put them on a wheelchair. The man was walking out the main entrance when Beaulier asked, “Do you have those on consignment?” The man answered yes, then pushed the wheelchair to his car parked in the hospital driveway. He put the quilts in the car and drove away, Beaulier told police.

The suspect was described as a white male in his 40s or 50s, 5-foot-6 and weighing about 160 pounds. He was wearing a red plaid shirt and jeans, according to witnesses.

A man was charged with operating under the influence and operating without a license after he was stopped Saturday night on the Griffin Road in Bangor. Police said his license expired in 1988.

Roger D. Bates, 50, was stopped at about 9 p.m. after a woman reported small blue pickup had almost struck her and another woman in the Capehart neighborhood. Patrolman Daniel C. Herrick spotted Bates’ vehicle shortly after he heard the call on the police scanner. Bates pulled over when he saw the police car behind him.

Bates’ record showed that he had at least two OUI charges and his license had not been renewed in more than 12 years.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Judy Harrison