Two men and a girl were arrested in Orland on Wednesday morning in connection with a string of car burglaries and car thefts.

Brewer police Lt. Perry Antone said his department met Tuesday night to discuss the morning’s 16 car burglaries and one theft of a truck. At about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, Officer Tony Pinette noticed a truck ahead of him that had a registration plate that belonged to a local business open only in the daytime. Pinette pulled the truck over.

Just before Pinette got out of his cruiser, Antone said, the truck reversed rapidly as if to ram him. Pinette drove out of the way. The truck then sped out of town on Wilson Street. Pinette pursued the truck for a time, but decided that the speed was a risk to the safety of other drivers.

Local police agencies were notified of the stolen truck after its owners confirmed that it was not supposed to be out. Bucksport police spotted it shortly afterward and followed it onto a dead-end road. The occupants fled on foot when the road ended.

Antone said a Maine State Police K-9 unit tracked the occupants, but they weren’t found.

Antone said more car burglaries began to be reported that morning. The Hancock County Sheriff’s Department also called saying they had a report of criminal trespassing and theft near where the truck was abandoned.

Sheriffs had also detained three individuals walking on Route 1A in Orland. Antone said he and Officer Pinette met with them there. Questioning led police to believe that all three were involved in Tuesday night’s car burglaries, while two of the trio were involved in Monday night’s burglaries.

One of the detainees, a juvenile female, took the officers to an apartment, where they found some of the stolen property.

Antone said that early Wednesday evening, Sgt. Chris Martin and Officer Roger Hershey went to a North Main Street apartment on a burglary report. Somebody evidently had forced their way into a temporarily unoccupied apartment and had stayed there for some time. Antone said there was more stolen property there, and evidence linked the two men who were detained in Orland to the burglary.

Antone said the girl and the two men were arrested. Charges are still pending, but will probably include 26 counts of car burglary, two motor vehicle thefts, driving to endanger, failure to stop for a police officer and Class B burglary. Antone said that a charge of assault with a motor vehicle is also being considered.

An Old Town man was arrested early Thursday after going to his friend’s house to check out strange activity in her yard.

Orono police Sgt. Gary Duquette said that at about midnight, he was parked in his cruiser in the parking lot of Thriftway talking to two plainclothes officers. They noticed a woman in an upstairs apartment watching them from time to time.

Duquette said a red Jeep pulled into the lot and a man got out. He approached the officers, swaying as he walked.

Duquette said the woman upstairs had called the man, Raymond Perkins, 55, of Old Town, to see what Duquette and his colleagues were up to. Neither she nor Perkins had realized they were police, though Duquette said his cruiser was parked under a light.

Duquette said Perkins failed sobriety tests. He was arrested and charged with operating under the influence. A breath test at the Orono police station gave a result of 0.28 percent blood alcohol.

Perkins was bailed on his own recognizance.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Isaac Kimball