Wanted in Portland on a larceny charge, 43-year-old Rita A. Devito was walking in the middle of traffic on Stillwater Avenue on Monday after taking a purse from the Goodwill store, according to police.

Officer Robert Hutchings was called to Stillwater Avenue about 6:40 p.m. for a report of a theft at the Goodwill store. Arriving, the officer found Devito walking on one side of the road and two women – later identified as Goodwill employees – on the other side, in pursuit.

Devito began walking in the middle of Stillwater Avenue, disrupting traffic, and approached a vehicle that had stopped, Hutchings reported. She opened his passenger side door and asked for a ride.

Hutchings brought Devito back to the side of the road where he arrested her for the theft of a $5.99 purse.

Devito could provide no identification, claiming that she actually was a 30-year-old named Angela and that Rita Devito was her roommate who was now a patient at Acadia Hospital.

She subsequently confessed as to her correct identity after Officer Robert Hutchings found several discrepancies in what she said, including a bank card in her purse with the name Devito on it. She also matched a description of Devito provided by the Bangor police dispatcher and Brewer police radioed to report that they had spoken with Devito earlier that same day.

A 27-year-old Frankfort woman was arrested Friday afternoon for shoplifting baby food and other items from Shaw’s Supermarket on Springer Drive in Bangor.

Becky L. Lewis was charged with the theft of $37.54 worth of merchandise after the store’s loss prevention officer called Bangor police. Ian Poulin reported that he saw Lewis, who was shopping with her two small children, place toothpaste, a toothbrush and other items in a diaper bag in the shopping cart.

Poulin told police that Lewis checked out and paid for two items, then left the store. He followed the woman out of the store, confronted her, then led her back into the supermarket and called police.

Lewis told police she had about $20 with her and had taken the items because she was recently separated and broke, according to the police report.

A 23-year-old Plymouth man was arrested for drunken driving early Saturday morning less than an hour after he’d been warned not to drive if he had been drinking.

Nicholas Kennedy had a blood alcohol level of 0.14 percent, or nearly two times the legal limit of 0.08 percent, according to the police report.

Officer Brent Beaulieu spotted Kennedy’s car parked behind the Irving Station on the Odlin Road about 3:13 a.m. Kennedy, who had a female passenger in the car, told Beaulieu that he had been drinking and had pulled over because he did not want to drive.

He told the officer that he would call a cab when he was ready to leave the parking lot, according to the police report.

Less than an hour later, Beaulieu saw Kennedy drive past the Park & Ride lot across from the Ramada Inn, where the officer was parked. He stopped Kennedy as he was turning east onto I-395.

When Beaulieu asked why he was driving when he’d told him he wouldn’t, Kennedy replied that he had to get his passenger home, but admitted that he could have called a cab, according to the police report.

– Compiled by NEWS reporters Judy Harrison and Doug Kesseli