March 29, 2024
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Bangor police charge 3 with burglary

Three people were charged with theft and burglary of a motor vehicle after witnesses watched them take part in stealing packages from a UPS delivery truck at the Bangor Mall, Bangor police said Sunday.

Using witness descriptions, police identified Matthew Spencer, 22, and a 15-year-old boy, both from Brewer, as the two males who got out of a green Chrysler car and stole three packages from the delivery truck Friday afternoon, Bangor police Officer Stephen Jordan said. The witness told police she saw two men, one wearing a football or a hockey jersey, and a second man wearing a burgundy jacket, get out of the car beside the UPS truck.

The witness claimed that the car was driven away by a third person who returned a short time later with the trunk open, Jordan said. The two men then loaded three packages into the trunk and left.

The UPS driver who had been away from the vehicle at the time of the theft told police that three packages were missing from the truck. One package was a Gateway computer monitor, Jordan said. The two other packages were from Radio Shack and one contained a DVD player while the other contained miscellaneous electronics. The total value of the three packages was about $600.

A short time after the theft, mall security stopped a green Chrysler Cirrus with three males inside for speeding through the mall parking lot. As the driver tried to use the Stillwater Avenue exit to Interstate 95, mall security stopped the car again so police could question the three.

Spencer was wearing a red fleece jacket and the teen was wearing a football jersey. The license plate matched the plate of the car mall security had stopped earlier in the area of the thefts, Jordan said. The driver of the car, Christopher Prendergast, 21, of Bangor, was issued a summons for driving with a suspended license.

After each person denied any knowledge of the thefts, police searched the car and did not find the packages, but charged each of the three with theft. All three were released with summonses to appear in 3rd District Court in Bangor on Feb. 3. After reviewing the case, police added a charge of burglary to a motor vehicle for each person.

A Bangor man remained in Penobscot County Jail on Sunday night on charges of violating a protection order, tempering with a witness-victim, and carrying a concealed weapon.

Police arrested Darrell W. Eaton, 33, Friday night after he met with police while carrying two concealed knives, Bangor police Officer James Dearing said. Eaton allegedly had called a 64-year-old Bangor woman seven times earlier in the day, at times telling her to “drop the charges” against him and at other times remaining silent and breathing. The woman had a protection order against him.

Shortly before 10 p.m. Friday, Eaton called the police after a friend told him that he had heard Eaton’s name mentioned on a police radio frequency, Dearing said. Eaton was told that there was paperwork for him. He, however, hung up on the officer he was speaking with, without giving his location.

Eaton called back to say that he would meet with police at a business on Broadway. When police met with Eaton, he admitted to police that he was armed with two knives, but denied that he called the woman, Dearing said.

Police found a right-handed knife hidden in his right pants pocket and a left-handed knife in his left pants pocket.

Each knife had a thumb hook so it could be used with one hand.

The knives “were kept in a manner to easily attack another person,” Dearing said. Eaton claimed that the knives were for his personal protection.

After he was arrested and placed in a cruiser on the three charges, he began kicking a window and then beating his head against another window, Dearing said. Eaton threatened the officer, demanded to have his knives back, and then made threats against the woman he allegedly had called earlier, Dearing said. Eaton will appear in 3rd District Court today

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Derek Breton


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