SANGERVILLE – About $40,000 worth of sheet metal pieces precut for stoves was stolen last week from a mill building owned by Charles MacArthur, according to police.

Police believe the metal, which years earlier had been cut into squares for stove making, was taken during daylight since graffiti was left behind inside the building, according to Lt. Robert Young of the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department.

Young said he believes the artists who left behind the elaborate graffiti and the thieves are connected and that both acts could have been conducted on the same day.

Entry into the former mill on Route 23 was through a broken window, Young said.

Anyone who may have seen a vehicle backed up to the building last week should contact the sheriff’s department at 564-3304.