HOWLAND – To Deputy Sheriff Michael Knights, the dispatcher’s call sounded like something out of a slasher movie: a report of a man standing on a street corner threatening passing motorists with a chain saw.

“You know how in the ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ the guy raised his chain saw up and revved it? That’s what he was doing,” Knights said Wednesday. “Alcohol was involved.”

Knights was describing Lionel Dube Jr., 47, of Argyle, who was charged with disorderly conduct, criminal threatening and violation of bail conditions.

Knights and Maine State Police Trooper Thomas Fiske said they took the chain saw away from Dube at gunpoint. Knights confiscated it after seeing that Dube was threatening motorists – and had done some freelance tree and hedge clipping – at a building opposite the Howland-Enfield Federal Credit Union, 4 Coffin St., at about 11:20 p.m. Tuesday.

Fiske said he was mystified as to why Dube was out there with a chain saw. By then, Knights said, Dube was little threat to anyone. The chain had broken off the saw, which Dube surrendered without incident.

A nearby resident or passing motorist reported the disturbance at about 11 p.m. One resident, Gary Bragdon, said he heard the chain saw, but didn’t report it.

Bragdon couldn’t believe his ears.

“I live almost across the street from the credit union, and I thought I heard a chain saw, and I thought ‘naww, nobody’s going to be out there with a chain saw,'” Bragdon said. “You hear a chain saw at 11:30 at night and you think, no, it can’t be. My mind must be playing tricks on me.”

Bragdon, the credit union’s manager, learned of the incident when he went to work Wednesday morning.

“It’s not a common occurrence for this sleepy little town,” Bragdon said.

Howland has a population of about 1,350 people and is approximately 35 miles north of Bangor along Interstate 95.

According to records from Third District Court in Bangor and in Lincoln, Dube has a fairly lengthy criminal record, largely consisting of minor criminal offenses.

In April 2005, Dube was charged with cultivating marijuana after Maine Drug Enforcement Agency agents, state police and game wardens with the Maine Warden Service searched an Enfield apartment and found approximately 45 plants under grow lights.

In 1993, Dube was one of three arrested after state game wardens saw them harvesting marijuana in a wooded area in Lee. In August 2006, Dube paid a $1,000 fine for cultivating marijuana and a $100 fine for failing to appear in court after being bailed, court records show.

He paid a $150 fine for operating a motor vehicle without a license in July 2005, and he paid a $100 fine for operating an unregistered snowmobile in May 2003.

Dube was being held Wednesday at the Penobscot County Jail on $290 bail, a jail official said. He is due in Lincoln District Court Aug. 7.