A Clinton man broke into a Bangor impound lot early Sunday morning and rammed his car through the lot’s fence to get out.

Bangor police caught up with Jeffrey Mark Strohman, 29, about two hours after his car last was seen in the impound lot. He was charged with burglary, criminal mischief, theft and criminal trespass.

Strohman admitted to sneaking into the impound lot, but claimed it was just to get some clothing out of his car, Bangor police Officer Jason Stuart reported. He got more than clothing.

The key Strohman had with him would open only the car’s doors, not start it up. To get the ignition key, the Clinton man said, he opened a window to the office and grabbed the key and paperwork. Employees said that the key and paperwork were about 10 feet from the window that Strohman claimed he had reached into. Pieces of screening from the office window were found near where Strohman’s car had been parked, although Strohman had claimed the screening was already off when he got there.

Once inside his car, Strohman rammed the back of his car through the gate, yanking up a pole that had been cemented into the ground.

A Hampden man reported to Bangor police that sometime between late Sunday night and early Monday morning someone took more than $4,800 in tools and equipment from a home construction site.

Missing from the home under construction at Fox Hollow were a generator, table saw, 300 feet of air hose, extension cords, nails and other items, reported Bangor police Officer Marty McCrea.

A passing motorist noticed a man acting suspiciously in the driveway of a Fern Street home in Bangor Saturday morning, and he called police.

It was a good thing he did.

When Bangor police Officer Randall Parsons arrived, the man was no longer outside, although the police officer could hear banging sounds coming from inside.

Inside the home, which was for sale and vacant at the time, police found a man in the basement with cut copper pipe in bags. Charles Fling, 25, of Millinocket denied cutting the pipes, telling Parsons that he was just picking them up, that someone else had cut them. Parsons noted in his police report that near where Fling had been hiding in the basement was a pair of pipe cutters.

Parsons arrested Fling who at the time was out on bail from an arrest in Brewer nearly a month earlier where Fling allegedly had been stealing copper piping from a vacant home. Parsons charged Fling with burglary, criminal mischief, theft and violation of conditions of release.

– Compiled by BDN reporter Doug Kesseli