Bangor man faces many charges after truck theft

A truck stolen from Bangor on Monday wound up off the road in Orrington later that night, and on the way the driver stole gasoline from a Brewer convenience store and rear-ended a parked car, police said.

Making matters worse, after the crash on Route 15 in Orrington, Damian Benner, 24, of Bangor jumped into the car of a passer-by and told her to “just drive, just drive” and then fought with police who went to take him into custody, authorities said.

Benner faces at least a half-dozen charges in connection with the incidents, which spanned three municipalities.

The commercial truck was reported stolen from a Parker Street driveway about 11:40 p.m. after a neighbor and co-worker of the owner saw it leaving and suspected something was wrong. The keys had been left in the truck and the truck left unlocked, the owner told Bangor police Officer Tyler Leighton.

A short time later, Brewer police received a report of a driver of a truck leaving the Big Apple convenience store without paying gas, said Brewer police Detective Sgt. Perry Antone.

As the police were taking the complaint on the theft of gas, Antone said, they received a report of a truck hitting a car parked by Tozier’s Market and then driving off. Authorities broadcast a description of the vehicle and Deputy Dain Bryant in Orrington located the truck after it drove off Route 15, near Graves Dryland Marine.

A neighbor told police she came down to investigate what the commotion was about and Benner jumped into her car, told her to drive away and that if police asked, he had been with her all evening.

Benner struggled with Bryant and Brewer Cpl. Keith Emery, who had come to assist. A dose of pepper spray helped calm Benner down, but the officer was hit by backlash spray. With help from a military serviceman, the officers were able to handcuff Benner.

Brewer police Sgt. Chris Martin said that Benner has been charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants, being a habitual offender, unlawful use of property, leaving the scene of a property damage accident and theft.

Wanted on warrants, Michael J. Stevens, 25, a transient, was seen entering a residence at 49 Bald Mountain Drive late Tuesday.

Bangor police officers went to investigate. Before knocking on the front door, they checked the rear of the house. Through a picture window, Stevens could be seen sitting in the living room, watching television, Officer Myron Warner reported. Officer Christopher Blanchard covered the back door while Warner returned to the front door and knocked. The woman who answered nervously claimed that Stevens was not inside. Told that Stevens had been spotted through the window and that she could be held liable for harboring a fugitive, the woman let Warner in.

Stevens was still in the living room but had moved from sitting on the couch to hiding beside it, according to the police report. Stevens stood up and approached the officer, who told the wanted man that he was to be taken into custody. Stevens came at Warner, prompting the officer to push him back, and Stevens fled out the back door when he saw Blanchard come through the front door.

The officers chased him around a building on Davis Road, Blanchard following Stevens around one side and Warner heading the opposite direction. When Warner met Stevens at a corner, the officer used pepper spray and reported that after getting a dose of the spray, Stevens ran into a chain-link fence.

The officers arrested Stevens on the two warrants and charged him with refusing to submit to an arrest.

Investigating a report of an accident and possible drunken driver, Bangor police arrived on Church Street on Monday night and found a red Ford pickup truck had been driven off the road and into the woods.

There were no skid marks and little to no damage to the pickup truck, reported Officer Christopher Blanchard. But blood was found on the trees and on the ground after the driver cut his hand, according to the police report.

The driver, identified as Dennis Bowman, 57, of Bangor, had been taken to the hospital by ambulance before Blanchard arrived. Bowman told an ambulance crew member that he had had six to eight beers, police said. He was less forthcoming with Blanchard at the emergency room at Eastern Maine Medical Center. Asked how much he had to drink, Bowman didn’t want to comment.

“I am not telling you,” he told the officer.

He was more cooperative when asked about taking a blood test to determine how much alcohol was in his bloodstream.

“Sure, why not? I am going to get convicted either way,” Blanchard said Bowman told him.

Bowman was charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants.

A 19-year-old man accused of shoplifting at the Bangor Mall on Monday attributed his getting caught to his inexperience in the field.

Bangor police Officer Edward A. Mercier was called to Hot Topic at the mall about 6:30 p.m., when it was reported that two men were being detained for shoplifting. A store employee told Mercier that she had seen Daniel Quillia, 19, of Winterport and another man walk around the store and that Quillia stuffed a gray and blue T-shirt into his jacket.

Quillia admitted to tucking the shirt into his jacket, but contended that he hadn’t actually left the store when the employee confronted him. He also confessed that it was his first time and “I am not very good at it.”

He faces a charge of theft.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Doug Kesseli