Transient wields knife at bank, police say

A transient man walked up to the drive-through window at the KeyBank branch on Bangor Mall Boulevard on Monday afternoon and wielded a knife, police said.

The man, identified as 44-year-old Daniel Joseph Jank, held the knife in his hand and just smiled, two bank employees told police. One teller said the knife was about a foot or two in front her, with the drive-through window between them. She said she was afraid of what Jank might do with the knife.

Police officers were called in at 3:26 p.m. Jank walked off before police arrived, but the 6-foot-2-inch man, who was wearing a brown leather jacket, sunglasses and a ball cap, was seen heading in the direction of the Kmart store. That’s where Officers Brad Johnston and Larry Morrill found him.

Johnston reported that Jank was sitting on a bench at the store entrance and that there were people walking in and out of the store nearby. Before they could say anything, Jank wanted to know what he had done, according to the police report.

The officers ordered Jank to walk toward the cruisers, and he complied with his hands in the air. As he moved, he was lowering his arms toward his jacket, Morrill reported. The officers ordered him to raise his arms away from the jacket, but Jank didn’t comply. When the officers were within a few feet of Jank, they each grabbed an arm and handcuffed him.

Johnston found the knife in Jank’s left front pants pocket and charged him with criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon.

A Bangor man told police that the high concentration of alcohol in his system was probably because of the bottle of cough medicine he had ingested.

In addition, Adam D. Laird, 20, told Bangor police early Friday morning that he had taken two medications and drunk two or three beers earlier. According to the police report, Laird’s blood alcohol content registered 0.12 percent, or 11/2 times the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

Police spotted Laird about 2:40 a.m. driving down High Street with no headlights on. Officer Douglas Moore also noted that Laird’s car stopped at a blinking red light for about 20 seconds, even though there was no other traffic.

Outside the car, Laird swayed from side to side and almost fell over, both before and during a field sobriety test, Moore reported. The alcohol Moore could smell coming from inside the car he now could smell coming directly from Laird, whose eyes were glassy and red, according to the report.

As well as taking medications, Laird said, he drank a whole bottle of cough medicine that he said contained 10 percent alcohol.

Moore arrested Laird, charging him with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants.

For months, some of the residents of Veazie have complained of noise – one noise in particular.

The heavy thudding of the deep bass coming from a radio inside a pickup truck has been annoying people as the truck passes their homes at all hours, according to police. The residents – mostly on Main Street, although some live on State Street and Chase Road – repeatedly described the truck, saw the license plate, “LILZ71,” and described the driver, leading the police to one man.

Back in late November, police officers met with the driver, 19-year-old Keith A. Robertson of Veazie, and asked for his voluntary cooperation in keeping the volume down. He agreed, said Veazie Police Officer Andrew Whitehouse.

Sound levels improved for a while, but then resumed. Residents reported hearing the thumping of the base from the truck long before it drove past their homes, according to police.

Whitehouse checked with prosecutors and was told to give Robertson a warning about the noise, and to tell him that if there was a next time, charges would be filed. The warning was issued on April 25.

One day later, Whitehouse visited one resident to inform him of the issued warning, but found out that 20 minutes before the officer had arrived, Robertson’s pickup truck had driven past. The man said the stereo could be heard over his television and oxygen regulator, both of which were on at the time. Whitehouse summoned Robertson, charging him with disorderly conduct.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Doug Kesseli