THORNDIKE – Authorities are searching for two men who were interrupted while in the process of allegedly stripping railroad cars for copper and lead Tuesday morning.

Waldo County Deputy Gene Riga said the two men ran off after Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad employees came upon them at approximately 10:30 a.m. while making a routine check of railroad property near the shuttered grain mill beside the tracks in Thorndike village.

“They were stripping lead and copper from a passenger car when the employees came upon them,” Riga said. “They hid and then ran off.”

Riga said a state trooper with a dog was called in to track the men but that the scent was lost in woods off Route 139. The men left behind a 1988 GMC Sierra pickup truck.

About four hours later the owner of the truck, Ryan Hamilton, 29, of Burnham, called the Sheriff’s Department to report that his pickup had been stolen. The incident remains under investigation, Riga said.