Bangor man scares away staring intruder with paintball gun

A Bangor man fired two shots from his paintball gun at a strange man he found in his home on Sunday, scaring the intruder away.

The Broadway resident told police that he was in his apartment’s living room at about 8:45 p.m. when he heard his kitchen door open. He went into the kitchen, thinking that it was his wife returning from the downstairs laundry room, possibly in need of help.

It wasn’t his wife. Instead, staring back at him was a stranger, a man wearing a gray hooded sweat shirt and camouflage pants. The Broadway man said he asked the man what he was doing and several times asked him to leave. Each time he got the same response: the man kept staring, unmoving.

Becoming nervous, the resident threatened to call the police, and when that didn’t work, he pulled out a paintball gun and told the intruder to leave or he would shoot.

“The suspect didn’t move,” Bangor police Officer Michael Jewett reported.

At that point, the resident fired off two shots, hitting the man and sending him running. The man, who appeared to be homeless, according to the resident, took off behind the building and across the back parking lot of St. Joseph Hospital, headed in the direction of Center Street. Jewett searched the area but couldn’t find the man.

A Pittsfield woman confronted at the Rite Aid store in Bangor on Tuesday didn’t have a receipt for the $39.32 in items police found in her purse, and she claimed they came from another store.

The store manager and police believed otherwise. A spot where each of the items had been on the shelves was open. Bangor police Officer Brad Hanson checked the other store, The Dollar Store, and learned that they didn’t carry the items in the woman’s purse, according to the police report.

Felicia McArthur, 20, of Pittsfield was charged with theft and with violation of condition of release, as she was out on bail from another charge at the time of her arrest.

An employee at Lids in the Bangor Mall reported to police Tuesday that a customer paid for $100 in purchases with a $300 traveler’s check that turned out to be bogus. The employee described the man as being about 5 feet 9 inches tall and of rugged build with a gut. He was wearing urban-style clothing and apparently was with a woman wearing a purple jogging suit, the employee told Bangor police Officer Jason Stuart.

The check included a license from Alabama listed on it, and Stuart left a message with the man listed on the check. He also checked the area to see if he could find the man.

Compiled by BDN reporter Doug Kesseli