Two people were issued summonses this week in connection with a Sept. 7 theft at the Maine Smoke Shop in Brewer. The theft was caught on tape and the suspects tracked because they had signed their names and addresses to a petition.

Matthew French, 21, of Eddington and Gina Nelson, 22, of Bradley each were charged with theft. Brewer police Cpl. David Lord said Nelson distracted one of the shop’s employees while French put $50 worth of cigarettes down his pants.

The employee noticed the theft after reviewing a surveillance tape and then remembered that French and Nelson had signed a petition inside the store, complete with their addresses.

The clerk called police, who called the suspects this week and asked the pair to meet them at the Brewer police station. French and Nelson admitted to the theft.

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A Carmel man was arrested Wednesday and charged with domestic assault and later charged with possession of a firearm by a felon after a Penobscot County sheriff’s deputy searched his home.

Deputy Joshua Tibbetts met a woman at the Carmel Fire Station at about 9 p.m. She claimed that her boyfriend, David Burgoyne, 31, had assaulted her while her two young children were at their house. She said he called her lazy, tried to choke her and grabbed her while she tried to escape through a window, the deputy said.

Tibbetts went to the Homestead Lane residence and spoke with Burgoyne, who admitted he had been convicted on prior occasions for assault. After Tibbetts received permission to search the home, the deputy found a Remington shotgun underneath a bed and arrested Burgoyne for assault and possession of a firearm.

Burgoyne was taken to Penobscot County Jail on Wednesday where he posted bail of $2,000, Tibbetts said. Burgoyne is not to return to the Homestead Lane residence.

– Compiled by BDN reporter Eric Russell