UMaine vandalism tops $8,000

ORONO – The hole in the glass at the Maine Center for the Arts was being patched Monday as University of Maine police sorted out what a spokesman called a crime spree on campus Saturday night.

UMaine spokesman Joe Carr said a rash of vandalism, which ended with the arrest of a 19-year-old UM student, included a knocked-over fence and two broken windows in the sculpture facility. The investigation expanded to other sites on campus when a hole in the newly installed MCA glass lobby was discovered Sunday, and a hole in a window at the Advanced Engineered Wood Composite Center also was found.

Carr said Kyle Alan Little, who listed his address as 125 Cumberland Hall, was arrested and charged with criminal mischief and refusal to submit to arrest. Little also was summoned for consumption of alcohol by possession.

Little was arrested in Cumberland Hall after campus police chased him and two other men, whose identities are unknown.

Carr said the initial police response came when a call box near Rogers Hall was activated at 10:53 p.m. Police on the scene didn’t find anyone, but noticed a fence between Fogler Library and Memorial Union had been knocked over. Police then were alerted to noise near the sculpture facility, where they discovered two broken windows and three men running from the scene toward Jenness Hall.

Other officers were directed to Jenness, where they saw the three men. The trio ran off as police approached, and police tracked Little to Cumberland Hall. He was arrested after a scuffle in the dormitory.

University officials were alerted to the basketball-size hole in the MCA glass Sunday afternoon. On Monday afternoon, the hole and cracks spreading across the glass could be seen above one of the doors to what will be a lobby when the building renovations are completed. The hole was expected to be covered with plywood Monday afternoon.

Carr said a softball-size rock was found on the ground in the area of the hole.

The 5-foot-by-12-foot pane of glass will have to be special-ordered and will take up to a month to replace. The cost will be in excess of $8,000, he said.

jbloch@bangordailynews.net

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