Cold helps foil man’s plan to flee to Canada

OLD TOWN – A Delaware man abandoned his bid Wednesday to avoid federal prosecution and flee to Canada in a stolen van after he realized it was too cold this far north in Maine.

State police troopers arrested Richard Faulkner, 32, of Delaware early Wednesday morning in Old Town while he was trying to return home in a van he had stolen from Delaware two days earlier, Sgt. Sean Hashey of the Maine State Police said Wednesday.

Faulkner made it as far north as Medway where he apparently decided it was too cold and he wanted to return to Delaware.

“He told us that he woke up in the Medway rest area and decided it was too cold so he was going to head back,” Hashey said.

Faulkner had been released from prison three months ago after serving time for stealing motor vehicles.

He was working for a plumber when he took the plumber’s van and headed north to Canada, apparently to avoid returning to prison on a federal probation violation.

Faulkner ran afoul of the law in Maine and drew attention to himself about 7:30 a.m. after he left a gas station in Medway without paying for $56 in gas he had pumped. A station clerk notified police and a description of the van went out over police radio airwaves.

Maine Game Warden Jeff Spencer was on Interstate 95 and noticed the van and followed it. Spencer called in the van’s license plate and it turned up stolen in Delaware, Hashey said.

Faulkner apparently realized he was being followed, exited the Interstate in Old Town and headed down Route 43, where he pulled into a driveway, Hashey said.

Spencer waited outside on the road until Hashey and Troopers Adam Coover and Brian Higgins arrived, along with Old Town police officers.

Faulkner, who turns 33 today, was charged with theft and was taken to Penobscot County Jail where he remained Wednesday night on a hold from the U.S. Marshal’s Office.