SEARSPORT – It started when a Belfast man paying for his gasoline inside the Irving Big Stop watched his 19-year-old passenger speed off without him in his Chevy Blazer.

It ended five days later when the off-duty Searsport police chief spotted the same Blazer headed out of Waldo County on Route 3.

Police Chief Mark Pooler said Tuesday he was driving his personal vehicle toward Augusta on Route 3 near the Kennebec-Waldo County line about 1:40 p.m. Friday when a black Chevrolet Blazer in the distance triggered a memory.

A similar vehicle with a temporary plate had been reported stolen from the Searsport Irving Big Stop five days earlier.

Owner David Pattershall of Belfast told police he had just filled the tank and was inside the Big Stop paying his bill Oct. 3 when he noticed the 1998 Blazer leave with his passenger, Tara Whalen, 19, of Belfast, at the wheel.

Recalling that, Pooler on Friday decided to check out the Blazer ahead of him. He concluded that Whalen was driving, so he contacted the Waldo County Communications Center, which relayed the information to the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Department.

A Kennebec County deputy arrived a short time later and pulled the Blazer over.

Whalen was arrested and charged with unauthorized use of property and failure to give a correct name and address to a police officer.

“I was standing right there, and she’s telling the deputy she’s someone else. I couldn’t believe it,” Pooler said.

Whalen was being held Tuesday at the Kennebec County Jail on $1,000 bail.

Pooler noted that Whalen had just been released from jail when she allegedly took off in Pattershall’s vehicle.

Pattershall’s cell phone was in the vehicle, and Pooler determined during his investigation that someone had made a number of calls to Connecticut while the Blazer was missing.

Pooler also obtained information that Whalen had applied for a job at a Connecticut gambling casino that same week.

“We do have information that she crossed the state line in a stolen vehicle and we think she was heading back to Connecticut when I saw her,” Pooler said. “It was just lucky that we ran into her when we did. The last thing on my mind at the time was police business, but when it runs into you …”