Pittsfield police hold three men leaving Canada after rural high-speed chase

PITTSFIELD – A car with three men apparently heading from Canada to their homes in New York led police on a 90-mph chase Monday.

The men were held at the Pittsfield police station for several hours while the U.S. Border Patrol checked their backgrounds.

The men were released, but not until the driver of their vehicle was charged with criminal speeding and eluding a police officer.

The incident began when Pittsfield police Officer Michael Cote was dispatched to Interstate 95 on Monday morning to watch for a southbound 2004 Mercury Marquis that had been reported running erratically and at high speeds.

While parked in a crossover just north of the Pittsfield I-95 exit, Cote clocked the car at 104 mph.

When he turned on his lights and attempted to stop the car, it raced down the Pittsfield exit ramp, turned right on Weeks Road, then immediately turned right on Spring Road.

Cote estimated that the car was going 80 to 90 mph on the narrow rural road. After a few minutes, the car pulled over. Its occupants, all from Brooklyn, New York, said they were late for an event in New York and were scared when they saw the cruiser’s lights.

The driver was Meir Lavkovsky, 20, and his passengers were Ganzvi Yaakoc, 19, and Yoelove Basch, 20.

Pittsfield police Sgt. Timothy Roussin and Somerset County sheriff’s Lt. Pierre Boucher assisted in the stop, and Maine State Police Trooper Christopher Carr used his dog to check the car for drugs and explosives. None was found.

Cote said Border Patrol was notified because the men’s identification “just didn’t add up.” He said one man had a driver’s license, another a passport and the third a birth certificate. All said they were U.S. citizens.

The men said they had crossed into the United States at the Houlton border station after a vacation in New Brunswick. Lavkovsky posted $500 cash bail and all three were released.