Two men lead Bangor police on foot chase

A foot chase early Wednesday morning between Bangor police and two men seen rummaging through cars ended with the two in custody, although not without a struggle with one of them.

Two men were reported going through motor vehicles on Charles Street about 2 a.m. Wednesday, but they fled when police arrived.

Bangor police Officer Brandon Vafiades confronted the two as they came out of the woods near the Thomas Hill Standpipe but they fled again, the officer reported. They were located hiding in the bushes near the Hilltop Daycare center.

Pax Conklin, 23, address unknown, was wanted on two warrants and taken into custody, while his companion, Austin Kimball-Pratt, 20, of Bangor struggled with police even after being given a dose of pepper spray. He broke free from one officer, then collided with another and was subdued on the ground.

The officers followed the path that the two men had taken but couldn’t find anything that may have been stolen from the motor vehicles, according to police reports.

A partial fingerprint was taken from a window of one of the motor vehicles, reported Bangor police Officer James Hassard. Kimball-Pratt was charged with failure to submit to arrest and disorderly conduct.

An Oregon man was arrested late Tuesday night when a sheriff deputy caught him allegedly stealing a plant from a landscaping company in Hermon.

Anthony Sohns, 26, told Penobscot County Sheriff Deputy Michael Adams that the plant was food for several poisonous bugs that Sohns was transporting in his red Nissan pickup truck.

Adams said Wednesday that he was patrolling the area of Route 2 in Hermon around 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday when he spotted a truck on the side of the road.

He stopped to see if the driver was in need of help and that’s when he saw Sohns walking back to the truck with a plant in his hands.

Sohns told the deputy that he knew the owners of the landscape retailer, but Adams said the late hour and the fact that Sohns climbed over a chain fence to get to the plants didn’t make sense.

The man was arrested and charged with theft by unauthorized taking. Sohns, who previously lived in Bangor, also had several license suspensions out of Maine and was charged with operating a motor vehicle after suspension.

Several residents of an apartment building on Broadway Street in Bangor reported that sometime early Wednesday morning someone spray painted their motor vehicles.

One resident reported finding an “M” painted on the back of a car, while another had a front license plate painted and in one case a Honda Civic had part of its model name spray painted.

The incidents apparently took place sometime between 1 a.m. and 7:30 a.m.

Compiled by BDN reporters Doug Kesseli and Eric Russell