3 teen-agers arrested in Brewer after purse stolen

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Three teen-agers led Brewer police on a brief chase Sunday afternoon and were charged with theft in connection with a stolen purse.

Police were sent to the North Brewer Shopping Center about 4:45 p.m. when a woman reported that a man had taken her purse and run while she was loading her groceries. While Officers Fred Luce and Tony Pinette interviewed witnesses, Cpls. Jason Moffitt and Levi Sewall headed for Parkway North, where Sewall knew that trails lead from the plaza through the woods.

Moffitt said they spotted a male acting suspiciously. As they turned their cruiser around to investigate, Moffitt saw a second male hiding behind a tree in a yard.

Both officers left the cruiser and gave chase, catching the second male several yards away.

Meanwhile, the first male had gotten into a Jeep Cherokee and driven off. Sewall stopped that vehicle down the street and found two juveniles inside. Moffitt estimated that only 10 minutes elapsed from when the call came in and when the first youth was taken into custody.

Residents told police they had seen the juveniles in their neighborhood earlier, walking around and apparently trying to check out the area where the trails ended.

Luce and a bloodhound tracked a scent along the trails and found the purse.

The youths ranged in age from 14 to 16 and were from the Hampden and Winterport areas.

The three admitted to being involved in the theft.

Bangor police surrounded an apartment building at 100 First St. early Saturday after a report that people had been fighting and that a gun was present.

About a half-dozen officers, including two from Brewer, set up outside the apartment about 4 a.m.

They were told that 10 people had entered the house and that others – one of them displaying a handgun -had left in a vehicle.

Three men came outside and police ordered them to the ground at gunpoint, reported Officer Erik Tall.

Four other men heard the commotion and came out and also were ordered down at gunpoint. Police entered the building to see if anyone inside had a gun or was injured, and found a girl hiding in the bedroom.

An 18-year-old man had several marks on his face that he said he received when two men he had met recently but didn’t know assaulted him.

Wanted on three warrants, Jon Atwood, 20, tried to pass himself off as his former roommate when the blue pickup truck he was driving was stopped on Pine Street in Bangor early Saturday.

But if Atwood had any expectation that the ruse would set him free, it was short-lived.

A computer check showed that Atwood owned the truck.

Confronted about it, Atwood told police that he owned the truck as well as the license plates, but that they actually belonged on a different truck and had expired at the end of March. Atwood also said that he didn’t have insurance nor was the truck registered.

Atwood subsequently acknowledged to police that he had used his roommate’s ID. Officer Rob Angelo reported that Atwood was wanted for aggravated forgery, failure to appear in court on a charge of operating a motor vehicle after suspension, and failure to appear in court on a charge of failing to give his correct name.

Angelo charged Atwood again with operating after suspension and with failure to give correct name as well as being a habitual offender, operating an unregistered motor vehicle and illegal attachment of license plates.

Police found a small bag of marijuana in Atwood’s right front pocket, reported Officer Russell Twaddell. Atwood was charged with possession of marijuana.

Peter Tuller, 29, of Bangor is being charged with assault and criminal threatening after his girlfriend reported to police Friday night that he dragged her out of a trailer by her hair and chased her around the trailer with a knife, threatening to kill her.

The woman told Officer Chris Morley that Tuller had been drinking most of the night and that an argument rapidly escalated to violence. She said he tried to choke her, chased her with the knife, and threatened to kill her and a friend who was with her.

Tuller left in a taxi before police arrived, but authorities had the cab diverted to the Bangor Police Department, where Tuller was arrested.

Two dogs on the loose along Interstate 95 in Bangor kept police busy and traffic backed up briefly Saturday afternoon.

The dogs, a Rottweiler and a white German shepherd, live on Falvey Street near the Broadway interchange and managed to get past the fencing that borders the interstate right of way. Officer Chris Desmond said the Rottweiler responded when called and jumped into his cruiser. The German shepherd proved uncooperative and kept running from police whenever they got close.

The dog continued to move north in the southbound lane in traffic that was backed up from the Ohio Street overpass to Broadway, Desmond said. After about 15 to 20 minutes of trying to capture the dog, the police decided to let it be and the dog returned home on its own.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Doug Kesseli