Bangor residents use video to catch mail thief

When a Bangor couple suspected that someone was stealing their mail, they took matters into their own hands and set up a video camera.

The couple set up the camera in a neighbor’s window, aimed at the mailboxes for their apartment building, and waited, Bangor police Officer Shawn Green said.

The tape showed a man standing in the doorway to his apartment and retrieving his own mail from his mailbox, before looking around and going back into his apartment, Green said. The man, later identified as Bertrand Ouellette, 18, of Bangor, then stuck his head back outside and took a yellow piece of mail from someone else’s mailbox.

Police approached Ouellette and he admitted that he had taken the package, which was not addressed to him and had contained a compact disc, Green said. Ouellette told police he had taken the package because, “I saw ‘CD’ on the side of it.”

Ouellette told police that he had taken mail a few other times, Green said. Ouellette was summoned to appear in 3rd District Court in Bangor on Dec. 30 for theft. The United State Postal Service was notified of the events and additional charges may follow.

A Veazie man arrested after allegedly stealing a taxicab in Old Town and leaving it in Alton on Sunday morning after crashing it will be headed to Massachusetts on an extradition warrant for three drug-related charges.

Patrick Deterra, 35, will be bound for Massachusetts after he appears in 3rd District Court in Bangor today on charges of theft by unauthorized use, aggravated criminal mischief, and operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants, Old Town police Sgt. Travis Roy said. In Maine, Deterra is accused of stealing a teal-colored 1994 Old Town Taxi cab while its driver was inside the Irving Mainway on South Main Street in Old Town trying to pay for gas he had just purchased before 3 a.m. Sunday.

An employee for the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department called police after noticing the cab being ditched along Route 43 in Alton, Roy said. Old Town police began to drive in the direction of where the car had gone when they found Deterra, who matched the description of a person seen in the store before the car was stolen, walking down the middle of the road back to Old Town.

The car had crashed into a guardrail on Route 43 and had more than $2,000 in damage, Roy said. Deterra appeared to be under the influence of drugs and did not know why he had taken the car and then left it in Alton, Roy said.

In Massachusetts, Deterra was wanted on a warrant that charged him with disguise to obstruct justice, Class A possess to distribute, and conspiracy to violate the Massachusetts drug laws.

A Class A charge involves a heroin-related crime, Massachusetts State Police spokesman Edward Principe said Sunday night. No information was immediately available regarding the charges or when Deterra will make his Massachusetts court appearance.

A Bangor man who tried to outrun police on foot after smoking a cigarette, was caught when he ran out of breath.

Brandon Gillespie, 23, had been driving his white Pontiac 6000 car near the intersection of Broadway and Kenduskeag Avenue when Bangor police Officer Douglas Moore recognized him and believed that his license was suspended, Moore said. Moore followed the car to 73 Husson Ave. and Gillespie told him that he still had his license, but a check found that it had been suspended for failure to pay a fine.

As Moore was checking the license plates on the car, Gillespie threw down his cigarette and began to run for the nearby woods, Moore said. After 75 yards, Moore arrested a winded Gillespie.

The license plates on Gillespie’s car were supposed to be on a blue 1988 Firebird and were in Gillespie’s girlfriend’s name, Moore said. Gillespie was charged with driving with a suspended license and false plates. He was later released from Penobscot County Jail in Bangor on personal recognizance bail and will appear in 3rd District Court in Bangor on Dec. 27.

Compiled by NEWS reporter Derek Breton